Page 4 - Rescue

Death toll rises to 308 in Wayanad landslides, rescue operations underway

Rescue and relief operations coordinated by the Army, NDRF, SDRF and civil administration are underway

Wayanad landslides: 40 teams of rescuers commence search operations

Braving rains and adverse terrain, 40 teams of rescuers began search operations in landslide-hit Wayanad district on the fourth day on Friday, officials said. The search and rescue operations that got underway early morning received an impetus due to the completion of the 190-foot-long Bailey bridge that will enable the movement of heavy machinery, including excavators, and ambulances to the worst-affected Mundakkai and Chooralmala hamlets, they said. The 40 teams will conduct search operations in six zones of the landslides-hit areas -- Attamala and Aaranmala (first), Mundakkai (second), Punchirimattam (third), Vellarimala village (fourth), GVHSS Vellarimala (fifth), and riverbank (sixth). The joint teams will include personnel from the army, NDRF, DSG, Coast Guard, Navy, and MEG along with three locals and one forest department employee. In addition to this, a three-pronged search operation will begin, focusing on the Chaliyar River, according to the rescue plan devised by the ..

Wayanad landslides: Survivors recount horror as death toll touches 158

Heavy engineering equipment and rescue dog teams are being airlifted and disaster relief teams have been dispatched by the Indian Coast Guard after a series of landslides in the hilly areas of Kerala's Wayanad district on Tuesday. Extremely heavy rain triggered a series of landslides in the hilly areas of Kerala's Wayanad district early on Tuesday, leaving at least 123 people dead and 128 injured. Many were feared trapped under the debris. "As a tragic disaster struck at Wayanad in the wee hours, Indian Armed Forces swung into immediate action and 300 military personnel were moved forthwith to commence rescue operations. During the day, additional columns of Army, naval teams and helicopters from the Air Force were mobilised to assist the rescue and relief efforts," the defence minister's office said on X. "All out efforts are underway as additional troops, heavy engineering equipment, rescue dog teams and other essential relief stores are being airlifted by service aircraft from ..

Sikkim landslide: Evacuation of stranded tourists begins from Lachun

The much-delayed evacuation of stranded tourists began by road from Toong in Sikkim's Mangan district on Monday noon, officials said. So far, a total of nine tourists have been evacuated, they said. The evacuation process is being led by the Mangan District Magistrate Hem Kumar Chettri and officials from Tourism and Civil Aviation and Forest Departments, besides the Travel Agent Association of Sikkim (TAAS). Despite incessant rains and multiple slides to cross over, the team is handling the evacuation with safety, care and caution, in batches, they said. Around 1200 tourists, including some foreigners, are stranded in Lachung town for the past one week as the road and communication networks have been crippled by torrential rains and landslides in several areas of Mangan district disrupting connectivity with the rest of the country. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is carrying out the restoration of the road network to facilitate vehicular traffic to and from Mangan district at

Watchman dead, over 40 girl students rescued from fire in Pune hostel

A watchman died and more than 40 girl students were rescued after a fire broke out in a five-storey building that houses a hostel in Shanipar area of Maharashtra's Pune city in the wee hours of Friday, officials said. The incident occurred around 1.30 am, said Pune Municipal Corporation's chief fire officer Devendra Potphode. Forty-two girl students who were living in the hostel on the second floor of the building were evacuated following the fire, he said. "The fire brigade received a call about the fire in a five-storey building. After our team reached the spot, it was found that the blaze had erupted at an accounting academy on the ground floor," Potphode said. By the time the fire brigade team reached the site, people in the area evacuated the girl students in the hostel, he said. When the fire was being doused on the ground floor, one person in his early 40s was found dead there with the death apparently being caused by burn injuries, he added. Deputy Commissioner of Police

2,000 feared dead in Papua New Guinea landslide, challenges for rescuers

The Papua New Guinea government said more than 2,000 people are believed to have been buried alive in a landslide in the South Pacific island nation, after the side of a mountain came down in the early hours of Friday morning when the village of Yambali was asleep. The settlement is located in a restive and remote area in the interior of the poor, rural nation off the northern coast of Australia, making search and rescue efforts complicated and hazardous. The government death toll is roughly triple the UN estimate of 670 killed. The remains of only six people had been recovered so far. In a letter seen by The Associated Press to the United Nations resident coordinator dated Sunday, the acting director of Papua New Guinea's National Disaster Center Luseta Laso Mana said the landslide buried more than 2,000 people alive and caused major destruction at Yambali village in the Enga province. Estimates of the casualties have varied widely since the disaster occurred, and it was not ...

5 workers dead, 49 still missing after building collapsed in South Africa

Rescue teams worked through the night searching for dozens of construction workers buried for more than 12 hours under the rubble of concrete after a multi-story apartment complex that was being built collapsed in a coastal city in South Africa. Authorities said early Tuesday that the death toll had risen to five, while 49 workers remained unaccounted-for in the mangled wreckage of the building, which collapsed on Monday afternoon. Authorities said a further 21 workers had been rescued from the rubble and taken to various hospitals, with at least 11 of them suffering severe injuries. The collapse happened in the city of George, about 400 km (250 miles) east of Cape Town on South Africa's south coast. More than 100 emergency personnel and other responders were on the scene, using sniffer dogs to try to locate the workers, some of whom were feared buried under huge slabs of concrete that fell on them when the five-story building came down. Large cranes and other heavy lifting equipme

Over 500 persons relocated amid land sinking in Jammu & Kashmir's Ramban

More than 500 people have been relocated to safer places after over 58 houses were completely damaged due to land sinking in a village in Jammu and Kashmir's Ramban district, officials said on Saturday. An official said the assessment of damages due to the land subsidence in Pernote village over the past three days has also started on war-footing to facilitate speedy release of compensation to affected families under the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) norms. The natural calamity hit the village on Thursday evening, also damaging four transmission towers, a power receiving station and a section of the road connecting the Gool sub-division with Ramban district headquarters. The Ramban district administration under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner Baseer-Ul-Haq Chaudhary, who is also Chairman of the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), has relocated all the affected families, the official said. A total of 100 households were affected as 58 houses got completely .

Bulgarian President thanks PM Modi on Indian Navy rescue operation

The Indian navy successfully carried out a rescue operation for a hijacked Bulgarian ship and its crew in the Arabian Sea, resulting in the capture of 35 pirates

Indian Coast Guard ship rescues man who fell into sea off Mumbai coast

According to the ICG official, the rescue operation lasted about three hours

INS Sumitra rescues fishermen from Somali pirate hijacking in Arabian sea

Around 17 crew members fell victim to the hijacking after Iranian fishing vessel MV Iman was hijacked

NDRF to observe 2024 as year of CBRN preparedness, response

The NDRF has decided to observe 2024 as the year of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) preparedness and response and will undertake training and exercises to attain better capability to deal with such disasters, Director General of the force Atul Karwal said Friday. He was speaking at the Vigyan Bhawan here during the 19th raising day of the federal contingency force. The DG said the Union home ministry, under which the force functions, has sanctioned fresh equipments to it for CBRN combat. The force has procured seven HAZMAT (hazardous material) vehicles during the recently concluded G20 Summit in the national capital for tackling CBRN accidents and disasters. The force, Karwal said, also has trained three teams for tackling forest fires and new equipment for this task are being procured, a job entrusted to the NDRF in 2023. He said the ministry of home affairs has also sanctioned eight new regional response centres (RRCs) for stationing its rescuers in various

Rescue operation underway in Gujarat's Vadodara boat capsize incident

Gadhavi added that eight rescue teams were deployed to the scene after being alerted about the incident

India's 2023 natural calamities: A wake-up call for climate action

Flash floods, cloudbursts, landslides, wildfires, earthquakes... 2023 kept reminding us that the climate clock is ticking for humans

Relief ops continue in TN's Thoothukudi, NDRF team reaches marooned people

Relief activities continued in the rain ravaged coastal district of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu while an NDRF team accompanied by police rescued the people marooned in the SIPCOT industrial area on Saturday. The NDRF team along with the SIPCOT police rescued the flood-affected women and children by boat and provided them food. Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena undertook an inspection of the flood-hit areas in the district today and assessed the damage due to rains. Relief activity is in full swing at Antoniyarpuram area, which was among the worst affected. A bridge near Antoniyarpuram on the Thoothukudi-Palayamgottai National Highway was breached during the extreme rainfall on December 17 and 18 that triggered floods while the bridges at Eral and Attur on the Thoothukudi-Tiruchendur road have also been severely damaged. Restoration work is also on at Srivaikuntam, Attur, Eral, Agaram,and Kayalpattinam areas which are still inundated. A central team had already inspected the

Indian Navy rescues injured crew member from hijacked Malta commercial ship

The injured crew member has a bullet injury near his shoulder and has been taken to Oman for specialised treatment under the care of Indian Navy doctors

6 dead, nearly 2 dozen injured as Tornado tears through middle of Tennessee

Severe storms that tore through central Tennessee killed six people Saturday and sent about two dozen to the hospital as homes and businesses were damaged in multiple cities. Three people, including a child, were killed after an apparent tornado struck Montgomery County north of Nashville near the Kentucky state line, county officials said in a news release. And the Nashville Emergency Operation Centre said in a post on a social media account that three people were killed by severe storms there. Montgomery County officials said another 23 there were treated for injuries at hospitals. Photos posted by the Clarksvillle fire department on social media showed damaged houses with debris strewn in the lawns, a tractor trailer flipped on its side on a highway and insulation ripped out of building walls. "This is devastating news and our hearts are broken for the families of those who lost loved ones," said Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts in a statement. "The city stands ready to help them in .

At least 16 dead, 12 injured as bus falls off ravine in central Philippines

A passenger bus lost control while negotiating a downhill curve in a central Philippine mountain village and plunged into a deep ravine, killing at least 16 people and injuring 12 others, officials said Wednesday. Eight of the wounded in the accident, which happened Tuesday afternoon in Hamtic town in the province of Antique, were in critical condition at a local hospital, officials said. The air-conditioned bus, which came from the nearby Iloilo province, was maneuvering through the accident-prone mountain road when the driver, who was among those killed, lost control. The bus smashed onto a concrete railing then fell into the ravine, officials said. The driver was repeatedly sounding his horn because he had apparently lost control of the bus before it plummeted into the ravine, Ronniel Pabustan, an Antique provincial crisis responder, told The Associated Press by telephone, citing accounts by some of the passengers. Dozens of rescuers, including police, army troops and provincial

More bodies found after sudden eruption of Indonesia's Mount Marapi

Rescuers searching the hazardous slopes of Indonesia's Mount Marapi volcano found the last body of climbers who were caught by a surprise weekend eruption, raising the number of confirmed dead to 23, officials said Wednesday. About 75 climbers started their way up the nearly 2,900-metre mountain in Agam district of West Sumatra province on Saturday and became stranded. Some 52 climbers were rescued after the initial eruption Sunday, and 11 others were initially confirmed dead. New eruptions on Monday and Tuesday spewed more hot ash as high as 800 metres into the air, reducing visibility and temporarily halting search and recovery operations, said Abdul Malik, chief of the Padang Search and Rescue Agency. The bodies of two climbers were located on Monday and nine more on Tuesday, the National Search and Rescue Agency said. West Sumatra's Police Chief Suharyono said the body of the last climber was found early Wednesday, just a few metres from the eruption site, bringing the death to

UN warns 2 boats adrift in Andaman Sea with 400 Rohingya aboard need rescue

An estimated 400 Rohingya Muslims believed to be aboard two boats adrift in the Andaman Sea without adequate supplies could die if more is not done to rescue them, according to the UN refugee agency and aid workers. The number of Rohingya Muslims fleeing by boats in a seasonal exodus - usually from squalid, overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh - has been rising since last year due to cuts to food rations and a spike in gang violence. There are about 400 children, women and men looking death in the eye if there are no moves to save these desperate souls, Babar Baloch, the agency's Bangkok-based regional spokesperson, told The Associated Press. The whereabouts of the other boat were unclear. The boats apparently embarked from Bangladesh and are reported to have been at sea for about two weeks, he said. The captain of one of the boats, contacted by the AP, said he had 180 to 190 people on board. They were out of food and water and the engine was damaged. The captain, who gave his