Page 8 - Death Toll

Toll in Mumbai ferry accident rises to 14, navy chief expresses condolence

The death toll in the Mumbai boat accident near Gateway of India that took place on Wednesday evening has risen to 14, BMC said.

BEST bus accident: Driver was not drunk, didn't have illness, say police

Medical tests of the driver involved in the Kurla BEST bus accident, which claimed eight lives, have indicated he did not have any mental disorder and was not drunk at the time of the incident, police said on Wednesday. The electric bus, hired on a wet-lease basis by the civic-run Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking and driven by Sanjay More, ploughed into a crowd in Mumbai's Kurla area on December 9. The accident claimed eight lives and left more than 40 persons injured. Several vehicles were also damaged in the incident. More (54) is in police custody for alleged reckless driving and booked on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Before the commencement of the case trial, the driver's psychological test was recently conducted at a civic hospital in Sion to confirm if he had any mental illness, a Kurla police official said. The test report confirmed his mental condition was normal and he had no mental disorder and he was not suffering fr

7.3 quake strikes Vanuatu, 14 dead, hundreds injured, some still trapped

At least 14 people are dead and hundreds more are injured after a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck off Vanuatu on Tuesday, causing widespread damage across the South Pacific island nation. Rescuers worked through the night trying to reach some people yelling under the rubble. The Red Cross reported the toll early Wednesday, citing government sources. Widespread damage to communications and other infrastructure has impeded the release of official reports. Phone service remained down. The earthquake occurred just before 1 pm at a depth of 57 kilometres and was centred 30 kilometres west of Port Vila, the largest city in Vanuatu, a group of 80 islands home to about 330,000 people. A tsunami warning was called off less than two hours after the quake, which was followed by large aftershocks. More than 200 people have been injured, said Katie Greenwood, Fiji-based head of the Red Cross in the Pacific, in a post on X. Vanuatu's main hospital has been damaged and the water supply has been

Macron thanks PM Modi for India's support after Cyclone Chido hit Mayotte

The cyclone - the worst to hit the territory of just over 300,000 in at least 90 years - flattened neighbourhoods, knocked out electrical grids, crushed hospitals and schools

Kurla BEST bus accident: Another man succumbs to injuries, toll rises to 8

A 55-year-old man, who was among the several persons injured in the BEST bus accident in Kurla area here, died on Monday morning, taking the death toll to eight, a civic official said. The electric bus, hired by the civic-run Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking on wet-lease basis, ploughed into a crowd and fatally knocked down seven persons and injured 42 others on a crowded road in Kurla area on December 9. Several vehicles were also damaged in the incident. One of the injured persons, identified as Fazlu Rehman, died during treatment at the Sion Hospital on Monday morning, the official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said. BEST has set up a five-member committee to investigate the Kurla accident. Driver Sanjay More (54) is in police custody for alleged reckless driving. In a statement issued last week, BEST said a committee, headed by Chief Manager (Transport) Ramesh Madavi, will investigate the accident. It also said that BEST would

Cyclone Chido death toll in Mayotte reaches 'several hundred': Official

The tropical cyclone blew through the southeastern Indian Ocean, also affecting the nearby islands of Comoros and Madagascar. Mayotte was directly in the path of the cyclone and suffered extensive

Left-wing extremism deaths down 86% since 2010, govt tells Rajya Sabha

The number of deaths of civilians and security forces in Left Wing Extremism-related incidents came down by 86 per cent from an all-time high of 1,005 in 2010 to 138 in 2,023, Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday. Replying to a question, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, said that in 2024 up to November 15, a sharp reduction of 25 per cent was witnessed in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) perpetrated incidents as compared to the corresponding period of 2023. "Due to the improved scenario, the geographical spread of LWE violence has also constricted substantially with the reduction of affected districts from 126 across 10 states in 2013 to only 38 in 2024 (with effect from April 2024) across nine states," Rai said. To address the LWE menace holistically, the government approved a 'national policy and action plan to address LWE' in 2015, the minister informed the Upper House. The policy envisages a multi-pronged strategy involving security-related measures, development ...

Hezbollah attack draws Israeli strikes, 11 killed, ceasefire limit tested

Israel unleashed its largest wave of airstrikes across Lebanon since agreeing to a ceasefire with Hezbollah last week, killing at least 11 people on Monday after the Lebanese militant group fired a volley of projectiles as a warning over what it said were Israeli truce violations. The projectiles were apparently the first time that Hezbollah took aim at Israeli forces after the 60-day ceasefire went into effect last Wednesday. The increasingly fragile truce aimed to end more than a year of war between Hezbollah and Israel part of a wider regional conflict sparked by the devastating Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. In the United States, President-elect Donald Trump demanded the immediate release of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian militant Hamas group in Gaza, saying on social media that if they are not freed before he takes office in January there would be HELL TO PAY. It was not immediately clear whether Trump was threatening to directly involve the U.S. military in Israel's ...

Five dead, 4 injured after car collides with bus in Uttar Pradesh's Hardoi

The accident took place when the car, returning from a wedding procession in Kanpur, collided with a bus returning from a wedding procession in Baghuali, as per police officials

Five dead, 15 injured after truck collides with bus on Yamuna expressway

The accident took place between 12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m when the bus was travelling from Delhi to Azamgarh

Two killed, 10 wounded in shootings near New Orleans parade route

Two people were killed and 10 others wounded in two separate shootings along a parade route and celebration on Sunday, authorities said. There were no immediate arrests. Officers responding to reports of gunfire shortly after 3:30 pm on an avenue in the city's St Roch neighbourhood found eight victims with gunshot wounds, according to a news release from the New Orleans Police Department. All eight were taken to hospitals in unknown condition. Police later said a ninth wounded person arrived at a hospital via a private car. About 45 minutes later, police received another report of gunfire as revellers were crossing the Almonaster Avenue Bridge, just over a kilometre to the north. One person died at the scene and another died at a hospital, police said. A third victim was driven to a hospital in a private vehicle and is in stable condition, police said. No arrests were announced and no suspect information was released. The St Roch neighbourhood is outside the city's French Quarter th

Tropical storm Sara drenches Honduras' north coast, flash floods likely

Tropical Storm Sara started moving slightly faster on Saturday after it stalled over Honduras, drenching the northern coast of the Central American nation, swelling rivers and trapping some people at home. Sustained rain fell overnight and continued on Saturday in the city of San Pedro Sula, where the storm cut off access to an entire community when a river crossing washed away. Through the weekend, the region could see life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center. The weather system made landfall late Thursday about 165 kilometres west-northwest of Cabo Gracias a Dios, on the Honduras-Nicaragua border. The Hurricane Center expected the storm to keep moving Saturday and into Sunday at a "somewhat faster motion west-northwestward" into the Gulf of Honduras before making landfall in Belize. Sara is then expected to turn northwesterly toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, though forecasters said it probably will not reemerge into th

Protesters blame rampant corruption for roof crash that killed 14 in Serbia

Anti-government protesters in Serbia on Monday demanded arrests and the resignations of top officials over the deadly collapse of a concrete roof at a railway station that killed 14 people in a northern city this month. The rally in Belgrade blamed the collapse on rampant corruption and sloppy renovation work on the station building in Novi Sad part of a wider deal with Chinese state companies involved in a number of infrastructure projects in the Balkan country. Borislav Novakovic, a former mayor of Novi Sad, accused the ruling populists of filling their bloody pockets while filling cemeteries in Serbia." The state was "responsible for the crime that took 14 lives, he added. The crowd chanted jail in response. The several thousand protesters demanded that Prime Minister Milos Vucevic and his government step down and that those responsible for the collapse be arrested. Authorities have opened an investigation and Serbia's construction minister submitted his resignation last week,

Israeli strike kills 3 people in central Gaza, say Palestinian officials

Palestinian medical officials say an Israeli strike hit a tent sheltering a displaced family in the central Gaza Strip, killing at least three people, including the parents of twins. The strike late Sunday in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp wounded the two children, aged 10, who were being treated for serious injuries at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah. The details of the casualties were listed in hospital records and an Associated Press reporter saw two of the bodies. The Israeli military says it only targets militants and accuses them of hiding among civilians. Palestinians reported heavy bombing late Sunday in the western areas of Nuseirat camp, which dates back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. At least 24 people were wounded and taken to the Awda hospital in Nuseirat, said Mohamed Muhareb, head of the hospital's ambulance service. The Israel-Hamas war began after militants stormed into Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 pe

Militant attack on Pakistani border leaves 5 Iranian security forces dead

A militant attack near the Pakistani border with Iran left five Iranian forces dead, the state-run IRNA news agency reported on Sunday. The report said the dead were ethnic Baluch members of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard's volunteer Basij force and were killed in Saravan city in Sistan and Baluchistan province. Saravan is some 1,400 km (870 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Earlier in the day, state TV reported that Revolutionary Guard forces killed three terrorists and arrested nine others in a military operation. The report did not specify which group the suspects belonged to. Last month, unknown gunmen killed four people, including the chief of the Revolutionary Guard in the province. In September, gunmen killed four border guards in Sistan and Baluchistan province in two separate attacks. The militant group Jaish al-Adl, which seeks greater rights for the ethnic Baluch minority, claimed responsibility for

One dead, 16 injured after shooting at Tuskegee University, 1 arrested

A shooting early Sunday that marred homecoming weekend at Tuskegee University in Alabama left one person dead and left 16 others injured, a dozen of them by gunfire, authorities said. One arrest was announced hours later. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said Jaquez Myrick, 25, of Montgomery, was taken into custody while leaving the scene of the campus shooting and had been found with a handgun with a machine gun conversion device. The agency's statement said Myrick faces a federal charge of possession of a machine gun. It did not say whether he was a student at the historically Black university, where the shooting erupted in the early hours on Sunday as the school's 100th Homecoming Week was winding down. Authorities said an 18-year-old man who died was not a university student but that some of the injured were students. It was not immediately known if Myrick had an attorney who could speak on his behalf. Twelve people were wounded by gunfire, and four others sustained injuries

Bus falls into gorge in Uttarakhand, 36 dead, CM announces ex-gratia

A bus fell into a deep gorge in Uttarakhand's Almora district on Monday, killing 23 of the 40 people on board and injuring 15. While 22 people died on the spot, one succumbed to injuries while being taken to a hospital in Ramnagar, Almora's District Disaster Management Officer Vineet Pal told PTI. The bus was going from Pauri to Ramnagar when the accident took place at Marchula in Almora, added District Magistrate Alok Kumar Pandey. About 40 passengers were in the bus when it fell into the 200-metre deep gorge, Pandey said. Police, SDRF and NDRF personnel immediately rushed to the spot to launch a search and rescue operation, he said. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed grief at the loss of lives in the accident. "Received very sad news of casualties of passengers in the unfortunate bus accident that took place in Marchula of Almora district. The district administration has been instructed to conduct relief and rescue operations swiftly," he said on X. "The local ...

Volcanic eruption burns houses in Indonesia, killing at least six people

Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency said Monday that at least six people have died as a series of volcanic eruptions widens on the remote island of Flores. The eruption at Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki just after midnight on Monday spewed thick brownish ash as high as 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) into the air and hot ashes hit a nearby village, burning down several houses including a convent of Catholic nuns, said Firman Yosef, an official at the Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki monitoring post. The Disaster Management Agency lowered the known death toll from an earlier report of nine, saying it had received updated information from local authorities. It said that information was still being collected about the extent of casualties and damage, as local media reports said more people were buried in collapsed houses. Authorities also raised the danger level and widened the danger zone for Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki on Monday, following a series of eruptions that began last week. The countr

Spain searches for bodies after unprecedented flooding claims 158 lives

Crews searched for bodies in stranded cars and sodden buildings Thursday as residents salvaged what they could from their ruined homes following monstrous flash floods in Spain that claimed at least 158 lives, with 155 deaths confirmed in the eastern Valencia region alone. More horrors emerged Thursday from the debris and ubiquitous layers of mud left by the walls of water that produced Spain's deadliest natural disaster in living memory. The damage from the storm late Tuesday and early Wednesday recalled the aftermath of a tsunami, with survivors left to pick up the pieces as they mourn their loved ones. Cars were piled on one another like fallen dominoes, uprooted trees, downed power lines and household items all mired in mud that covered streets in dozens of communities in Valencia, a region south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast. An unknown number of people are still missing and more victims could be found. Unfortunately, there are dead people inside some vehicles, Spain

Taiwan closes schools and offices as typhoon Kong-rey reaches east coast

Schools and offices have been closed in Taiwan as a powerful typhoon made landfall on Thursday, bringing high winds and floods to much of the island's east coast and northern areas. Flights and train service have also been suspended and 8,600 people moved to shelters. Typhoon Kong-rey was blowing at 184 km (114 miles) per hour with gusts of up to 227 km (141 miles) per hour as it moved over the eastern county of Taitung. Parts of Yilan and Hualien Counties were inundated by heavy rain, but many farmers in the largely rural areas had already brought in their crops in anticipation of damage from the storm. No deaths or major property damage have been reported from Kong-rey so far in Taiwan. The storm prompted villagers in northern Philippine provinces to evacuate to shelters on Wednesday. Taiwan authorities reported 27 injuries from the storm and said they were seeking to contact a pair of Czech tourists who had been hiking in Hualien's Tarako National Park, famed for its steep cliffs