Emergency services have warned the number of dead may rise as they search the site of the blaze in Murcia, southeast Spain.
At least 13 people have died in a nightclub fire in Murcia in southeast Spain, officials have said.
Rescuers are still searching for people unaccounted for after the blaze broke out in the early hours of the morning.
The fire tore through three adjoining nightclubs.
Pic: X/@BomberosMurcia
Four people were injured and the number of dead could rise, Murcia’s emergency services said.
Video posted by Murcia’s fire service on X, formerly Twitter, showed firefighters working to control flames inside the nightclub.
The fire had destroyed part of the roof, the footage showed.
Diego Seral, of Spain’s National Police, told reporters the collapse was making it difficult to locate victims, and it was hard to pinpoint yet where exactly the fire started.
The identification of the bodies would take time, he said.
Outside the club, young people hugged, looking shocked as they waited for information about those missing.
“I think we left 30 seconds to one minute before the alarms went off and all the lights went out [and] the screams saying there was a fire,” one survivor, who was not identified, said.
“Five family members and two friends are missing.”
Pic: X/@BomberosMurcia
A spokesperson for the Teatre nightclub, Maria Dolores Albellan, told reporters the fire originated in the neighbouring club, Fonda Milagros, before spreading to the two adjoining clubs.
Spanish media reported several birthday celebrations were taking place at the time.
Murcia mayor Jose Ballesta said they were working to establish the cause of the blaze.
“We are devastated,” he said on Spanish TV channel 24h.
Approximately 23 million people were under flood watches across parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut on Friday morning, as extreme rainfall shut off subway lines and flooded streets.
A state of emergency has been declared in New York City and two other surrounding areas after “extreme rainfall” caused widespread flooding in the northeast region.
Up to 13cm (five inches) of rain fell in some areas overnight, and as much as 18cm (seven inches) more was expected throughout the day, New York governor, Kathy Hochul, said.
Writing on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday morning, she declared a state of emergency in New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley, due to the weather.
Earlier on Friday, Ms Hochul said: “This is a dangerous, life-threatening storm. Count on this for the next 20 hours.”
She said her message to New Yorkers is that the “water is deadly”.
Pic: AP
Approximately 23 million people were under flood watches across parts of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut on Friday morning, with flash flood warnings in effect for parts of Long Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and New Jersey, according to NBC.
Footage posted on social media showed water pouring into underground stations and streets that had been turned into small lakes.
Pic: AP
Zack Taylor, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, warned people against attempting to travel in the conditions until it clears.
Chaos during rush hour saw some drivers abandon their cars as traffic came to a standstill on a stretch of FDR Drive – a major road along the east side of Manhattan.
India and the US agreed to continue their cooperation in the areas of defence, space and clean energy as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Secretary of State Antony Blinken, amid a simmering diplomatic row between India and Canada over the killing of a Khalistani separatist.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Washington, US.
India and the US agreed to continue their cooperation in the areas of defence, space and clean energy as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Secretary of State Antony Blinken, amid a simmering diplomatic row between India and Canada over the killing of a Khalistani separatist.
Jaishankar is currently on a five-day official trip to Washington DC. This is the highest-level interaction between the two countries after the recent G20 Summit in New Delhi.
“Great to meet my friend US Secretary of State @SecBlinken at State Department today. A wide ranging discussion, following up on PM @narendramodi’s June visit. Also exchanged notes on global developments. Laid the groundwork of our 2+2 meeting very soon,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday.
Great to meet my friend US Secretary of State @SecBlinken at State Department today.
A wide ranging discussion, following up on PM @narendramodi’s June visit. Also exchanged notes on global developments.
The two top diplomats “discussed a full range of issues, including key outcomes of India’s G20 presidency, and the creation of India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor and its potential to generate transparent, sustainable, and high-standard infrastructure investments,” State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
VIDEO | EAM @DrSJaishankar meets with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) at the US Department of State.
The two leaders did not take any questions from the media.
“The Secretary and the External Affairs Minister also emphasised the continued importance of cooperation ahead of the upcoming 2+2 Dialogue, in particular in the areas of defence, space, and clean energy,” Miller said in a statement after the meeting.
New Delhi will host the fifth edition of India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue, Jaishankar announced on Thursday. Although he did not reveal the dates of the meeting, it is learnt that the ministerial dialogue would be held in the first half of November.
The US delegation would be represented by Blinken along with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Jaishankar and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh will lead the Indian delegation.
“I actually look forward to seeing you in Delhi for the 2+2,” Jaishankar told Blinken, as the latter welcomed him at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department for the meeting.
The last 2+2 ministerial was held in Washington DC on April 11. Started during the previous Trump administration, the first 2+2 ministerial was held in New Delhi on September 6, 2018.
“Focused discussion on India-US collaboration on critical and emerging tech and creating resilient supply chains at discussion convened by @USISPForum,” Jaishankar said in another post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
The Danish military’s Joint Arctic Command (JAC) said the closest Danish navy ship was around 1,200 nautical miles (more than 2,000km or 1,380 miles) away, adding it was heading to the site and would not reach the grounded ship until Friday at the earliest.
A cruise ship with 206 passengers and crew on board has run aground in northwestern Greenland – and rescuers will not arrive until Friday at the earliest, authorities said.<br />
The Ocean Explorer ran aground on Monday in Alpefjord in a national park 870 miles (1,400km) northeast of Greenland’s capital Nuuk, the Danish military’s Joint Arctic Command (JAC) said.
“A cruise ship in trouble in the national park is obviously a worry. The nearest help is far away, our units are far away, and the weather can be very unfavourable,” JAC head of operations Commander Brian Jensen said in the statement.
He said the closest Danish navy ship was around 1,200 nautical miles (more than 1,380 miles or 2,000km) away – adding it was heading to the site and would not reach the grounded ship until Friday at the earliest.
“However, in this specific situation, we do not see any immediate danger to human life or the environment, which is reassuring,” he added.
Authorities have been in contact with another cruise ship in the area and it has been asked to remain nearby to assist in case the situation changes.
The grounded cruise ship might also get free on its own when the tide is high, Greenland television KNR reported.
But later on Tuesday, the JAC said on its Facebook page the ship was still stuck despite the tide.
“Regardless, the most important thing for us is that everyone gets to safety,” Mr Jensen said.
njured passengers being treated at a hospital after a trailer rammed into a passenger bus from behind on the Jaipur-Agra National Highway, in Bharatpur district, Wednesday, Sept 13, 2023
Eleven people from Gujarat were killed and at least 15 injured when a trailer rammed into their bus from behind in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur district early on Wednesday, police said.
The bus was on its way from Gujarat to Mathura in Uttar Pradesh when the accident occurred around 4.30 am, they said.
VIDEO | 11 people were killed and several others injured after a truck rammed into a passenger bus on Jaipur-Agra Highway in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur district. More details are awaited. pic.twitter.com/8peYDuOQ5J
Emergency workers have uncovered more than 1,500 bodies in the wreckage of the eastern city of Derna.
More than 5,300 people are feared dead after devastating flooding struck Libya.
A quarter of the eastern city of Derna was wiped out by floodwaters after dams burst as Storm Daniel hit the country, the local administration said, with more than 1,500 bodies recovered so far.
There are fears the number of those killed will rise further, with 10,000 people reported missing after entire neighbourhoods were washed away.
More than 5,300 people in Derna alone have been killed, according to Mohammed Abu-Lamousha, a spokesman for the east Libya interior ministry.
Cars stacked on top of each other. Pic: Libyan government via AP
Derna’s ambulance authority earlier put the number at 2,300.
Images showed a mass grave piled with bodies.
Pic: AP
Disaster zone
Derna has been declared a disaster zone.
Tamer Ramadan, head of the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) in Libya, said: “We can confirm from our independent sources of information that the number of missing people is hitting 10,000 so far.
“The death toll is huge and might reach thousands.”
Survivors of Morocco’s deadliest earthquake in more than six decades struggled to find food, water and shelter on Sunday as the search for the missing continued in remote villages and the death toll of more than 2,100 seemed likely to rise further.
Many people were spending a third night in the open after the 6.8 magnitude quake hit late on Friday. Relief workers face the challenge of reaching the worst-affected villages in the High Atlas, a rugged mountain range where settlements are often remote and where many houses crumbled.
The death toll climbed to 2,122 with 2,421 people injured, state TV reported. Morocco said it may accept relief offers from other countries and will work to coordinate them if needed, according to state TV.
The damage done to Morocco’s cultural heritage became more evident as local media reported the collapse of a historically important 12th century mosque. The quake also damaged parts of Marrakech old city, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
In Moulay Brahim, a village 40 km (25 miles) south of Marrakech, residents described how they dug the dead from the rubble using their bare hands. On a hillside overlooking the village, residents buried a 45-year-old woman who had died along with her 18-year-old son, a woman sobbing loudly as the body was lowered into the grave.
As he retrieved possessions from his damaged home, Hussein Adnaie said he believed people were still buried in the rubble nearby.
“They didn’t get the rescue they needed so they died. I rescued my children and I’m trying to get covers for them and anything to wear from the house,” Adnaie said.
Yassin Noumghar, 36, complained of shortages of water, food and power, saying he had received little government aid so far.
“We lost everything, we lost the entire house,” Noumghar said. “We want just for our government to help us.”
Later, sacks of food were unloaded from a truck which local official Mouhamad al-Hayyan said had been organised by the government and civil society organisations.
Twenty-five bodies had been brought to the village’s small clinic, according to staff.
With many homes built of mud bricks and timber or cement and breeze blocks, structures crumbled easily. It was Morocco’s deadliest earthquake since 1960 when a quake was estimated to have killed at least 12,000 people.
In the badly hit village of Amizmiz, residents watched as rescuers used a mechanical digger on a collapsed house.
“They are looking for a man and his son. One of them might still be alive,” said Hassan Halouch, a retired builder.
The team eventually recovered only bodies.
The army, mobilised to help the rescue effort, set up a camp with tents for the homeless. With most shops damaged or closed, residents struggled to get food and supplies.
Emergency crews work, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, in Amizmiz, Morocco, September 10, 2023. REUTERS/Nacho Doce
“We’re still waiting for tents. We haven’t had anything yet,” said Mohammed Nejjar, a labourer who was folding his blanket in a makeshift shelter constructed with bits of wood. “I had a little food offered by one man but that’s all since the earthquake. You can’t see a single shop open here and people are frightened to go inside in case the roof falls down.”
The quake’s epicentre was 72 km (45 miles) southwest of Marrakech, a city beloved by Moroccans and foreign tourists for its medieval mosques, palaces and seminaries richly adorned with vivid mosaic tiling amid a labyrinth of rose-hued alleyways.
The government said on Sunday it has set up a fund for those affected by the earthquake. The government has also said it is reinforcing search-and-rescue teams, providing drinking water and distributing food, tents and blankets. The World Health Organization said more than 300,000 people have been affected by the disaster.
FOREIGN AID
Spain said 56 officers and four sniffer dogs have arrived in Morocco, while a second team of 30 people and four dogs was heading there. Britain said it was deploying 60 search-and-rescue specialists and four dogs on Sunday, as well as a four-person medical assessment team. Qatar also said its search-and-rescue team departed for Morocco.
U.S. President Joe Biden expressed his “sadness about the loss of life and devastation” caused by the quake.
“We stand ready to provide any necessary assistance to the Moroccan people,” Biden told a news conference in Hanoi, Vietnam.
A U.S. official said a small team of disaster experts dispatched by the United States arrived in Morocco on Sunday to assess the situation.
France said it stood ready to help and was awaiting a formal request from Morocco.
Other countries offering assistance included Turkey, where earthquakes in February killed more than 50,000 people. By Sunday, the Turkish team had not yet departed.
“The next two to three days will be critical for finding people trapped under the rubble,” Caroline Holt, global director of operations for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), told Reuters.
At least six people have died and more than six were still missing on Thursday after storm Daniel swept across central Greece, triggering landslides, destroying roads and bridges and carrying away dozens of cars.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis postponed an annual economic speech scheduled for this weekend and will instead visit areas hit since Monday by torrential rain that has flooded homes and destroyed key infrastructure, including power poles.
“The state mechanism’s absolute priority right now is the rescue and evacuation of people from the areas affected,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told a press briefing.
“Our country is facing for the third day a phenomenon unlike any other we have seen in the past,” Marinakis said, before announcing that the recently re-elected leader’s main economic policy speech would be held in the middle of next week instead of Saturday.
The mainland port city of Volos, the surrounding mountainous Pelion area and the cities of Karditsa and Trikala were among the worst-hit areas.
Heavy rainfall, which came days after a two-week deadly wildfire died out in the north and authorities said was the most extreme on record, has turned many villages in the low-lying area of Karditsa, in the mainland Thessaly plain, into a lake.
Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said during a press briefing on Thursday that six people had been reported missing in the area of Karditsa.
The fire brigade said the bodies of two elderly women were recovered from a house at the community of Astritsa near Karditsa on Thursday. The body of a man had been found in the town of Domokos earlier in the day.
HOUSES SUBMERGED
Rescue personnel operate during an evacuation from an area flooded due to the impact of storm Daniel, in Astritsa, Greece, September 7, 2023. REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki
Reuters footage showed houses submerged in flood water in the Trikala region.
In the town of Palamas, near Karditsa, dozens of people were trapped inside their flooded residences, Mayor Giorgos Sakellariou, told Open television. Residents speaking to local media called for help and for food supplies.
A fire brigade helicopter airlifted people from the village of Agia Triada, where at least 20 people had been trapped, the government said.
Since Tuesday, 820 people have been evacuated across the country, 750 of them in the Thessaly region.
A fire brigade official said that emergency crews assisted by the army and coastguard used lifeboats in an effort to reach the storm-hit villages in Karditsa, where water was 2 metres (6.5 feet) deep.
“Operations are been carried out very carefully as flood debris obstructed the boats, while, in other cases, the power of the water does not allow us to approach,” fire brigade spokesperson Vasilios Vathrakogiannis told a briefing.
Mark Dickey, the U.S. caver who is currently trapped near Morca, poses in Mentone, Alabama, U.S., May 12, 2023. National Cave Rescue Commission (NCRC)/Handout via REUTERS/File photo Acquire Licensing Rights
More than 150 rescuers raced on Thursday to reach an American man who fell ill and became trapped some 1,000 metres (3,280 ft) underground in a cave he was exploring in southern Turkey.
Mark Dickey, 40, was on an international exploration mission in the Morca cave in the Taurus mountains when he began suffering gastrointestinal bleeding, Turkey’s TUMAF caving federation said in a statement.
“Several international teams, including Croats and Italians, are aiding in the operations. The guy is some 1,000 metres deep, they are dividing the ascent in seven sections,” TUMAF head Bulent Genc told Reuters.
“They expect (rescue operations) to take 10 days, but it may be shorter if the guy’s better or longer if his situation worsens,” Genc said, adding that Dickey’s condition had improved and he was now able to stand on his own.
TUMAF said a phone line to reach a depth of 1,040 metres had been set up and that Croatian rescuers were setting up an additional “CaveLink” communications system as backup.
It said medics at the scene would decide whether it was possible for Dickey to be pulled out without a stretcher.
A storm has devastated the southern state of Rio Grande Sul, the latest in a string of extreme weather events.
People look for victims after a cyclone struck Bom Retiro do Sul in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on September 5 [Diego Vara/Reuters]A cyclone has devastated southern Brazil, with flooding in several cities leaving at least 21 people dead and displacing hundreds more.
Authorities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul said on Tuesday that more bodies are being found as flood waters recede. Governor Eduardo Leite said that about 60 cities were affected by the storm.
“Since dawn, we saw that [the water] was going to flood [our house], and we were putting things on top of the table, on top of the wood stove, but it didn’t help,” Luana Da Luz, a resident of the town of Passo Fundo, told the Reuters news agency.
Estimates for the number of people forced from their homes vary. The Associated Press estimates 1,650 have been displaced, while the news agency AFP cited a higher statistic: 3,700.
In addition to the 21 lives lost in Rio Grande do Sul, one death was confirmed in the neighbouring state of Santa Catarina, according to Reuters.
Massive floods due to heavy rains in Nova Bassano of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil 🇧🇷 (04.09.2023)
Tuesday’s cyclone is the latest in a string of extreme weather events to heap misery on Brazil, underscoring the risks of storms driven to greater frequency and intensity by climate change.
In June, a cyclone in southern Brazil killed 13 people and displaced thousands from their homes. In February, landslides and flooding triggered by torrential rainfall killed at least 65 people in the state of Sao Paulo.
The RSV Nuyina set off from Hobart in Tasmania last week
Australia has launched an urgent operation to rescue a researcher with a “developing medical condition” from the remote Casey outpost in Antarctica.
The icebreaker RSV Nuyina left from Tasmania last week, the Australian Antarctic Program (AAP) said.
It is travelling thousands of miles to reach the station after an air rescue was ruled out due to harsh conditions.
The AAP said the researcher, an Australian, needs specialist treatment but did not name the condition.
The programme added that it had taken weeks to prepare the Nuyina for the mission, including equipping it with helicopters.
Casey research station is a journey of 2,139 miles (3,443km) from Hobart in Tasmania and one of three permanent Antarctic stations run by the AAP.
The Nuyina, which cost A$528m ($342m; £271m) to build, has a top speed of 16 knots, or around 18 miles an hour, meaning a journey of several days.
It is understood that an evacuation by air was not possible – the nearby Wilkins aerodrome near Casey has an ice runway and is often unusable during the harsh winter.
According to reports the runway would need weeks of preparation to use, and therefore it is far quicker to send the icebreaker.
Medical facilities are limited on the research station, and only about 20 people live there during winter when conditions are at their worst.
A spokesman for the AAP told the BBC that the “wellbeing of our people is our highest priority”.
“The expeditioner’s family is being kept fully informed of the situation,” it added. “All other personnel on stations are accounted for and safe.”
The site has been turned into a mud bath and now roads into and out of Burning Man have been closed. Tens of thousands of people have been left stranded and urged to take shelter.
Chris Rock and Diplo escape Burning Man festival.
A death at Burning Man is under investigation as rain lashes the festival and tens of thousands of people remain stranded.
Roads into and out of the event in the Nevada desert have been closed due to flooding and festivalgoers have been urged to conserve food and water and take shelter. No toilets were working.
Police said a person has died “during this rain event” but did not provide further information. Their family has been informed.
The US Bureau of Land Management, the agency that manages the land on which the event takes place, said in a statement: “Rain over the last 24 hours has created a situation that required a full stop of vehicle movement on the playa.
“More rain is expected over the next few days and conditions are not expected to improve enough to allow vehicles to enter the playa.”
The White House said on Sunday that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the situation.
Paul Reder, who has been attending the festival for 22 years, said: “Fortunately we’re in a fairly big camp with a lot of supplies.
“As a community, everybody’s sharing with each other.”
Mr Reder said he expected it would take at least two days for the area to dry out.
The building in the central business district has been described as an “informal settlement” where homeless people had moved in looking for accommodation.
At least 74 people have been killed in a fire in a multi-storey building in South Africa’s biggest city, authorities have said.
Officials said 55 more were injured in the blaze in Johannesburg, which broke out in the middle of the night.
Robert Mulaudzi, a spokesman for the emergency services, has warned the number of fatalities may rise further – as more people could be trapped inside.
There were “obstructions” everywhere, and this would have made it difficult to escape.
Firefighters work at the scene of a deadly blaze
Firefighters have been currently going from floor to floor – working slowly through the building’s five storeys.
“Over 20 years in the service, I’ve never come across something like this,” Mr Mulaudzi added.
Witnesses saw people throwing babies from the burning building in an attempt to save them – and at least one man jumped to his death.
Seven of the victims were children – and the youngest was a year old.
One woman who escaped the flames with her grown son and a two-year-old said she didn’t know what had happened to two other children in her family.
The building in the central business district has been described as an “informal settlement” where homeless people had moved in looking for accommodation. Some of the victims may have been renting rooms from criminal gangs.
According to witnesses, at least 200 people may have been living there – maybe more – and many of them were foreign nationals.
People looking for their loved ones have been warned that chances of finding them alive are “very slim”.
One woman looking for her daughter tearfully told reporters: “This is not a place where somebody can live. I was trying to get her to come back home so she could get back to the life she was living before.”
Hurricane Idalia has wrought havoc in Florida, leaving 250,000 homes without power and submerging properties. The storm has now been downgraded as it heads into Georgia – but storm surges and rainfall pose new risks.
Idalia is now a tropical storm – what has happened so far?
Flooded roads, evacuations and downed power lines – there’s no doubt Idalia has caused havoc in the US over the last 24 hours.
It was originally classed as a category 3 hurricane, but as the day comes to an end it has been downgraded to a tropical storm.
Here’s what has happened so far:
Idalia roared ashore early this morning with 125 mph winds and unleashed devastation along a wide stretch of the Gulf Coast.
Homes and vehicles were submerged, streets turned into rivers, and small boats were unmoored before the hurricane went sweeping into Georgia.
Almost 438,000 customers in Florida and Georgia lost power while rushing water covered streets near the coast.
The centre of the hurricane then moved inland, causing high winds to shred signs, send sheet metal flying and snap tall trees.
Idalia came ashore in the lightly populated Big Bend region, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula.
It made landfall as a high-end category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 125 mph.
There were no confirmed storm deaths in Florida, although fatal traffic accidents in two counties may end up being storm-related, Florida governor Ron DeSantis said.
State officials, 5,500 National Guardsman and rescue crews were in search-and-recovery mode, inspecting bridges, clearing toppled trees and looking for anyone in distress in one of Florida’s most rural regions.
On the island of Cedar Key, downed trees and debris blocked roads, and propane tanks exploded.
The incident took place at 5.25 am in the shop located in Pooja Heights building at Purna Nagar in Chikhli area of Pimpri Chinchwad, officials said.
Credit: PTI Videograb
Four members of a family, including two minors, were killed after a fire broke out at an electric hardware shop in Pimpri Chinchwad town of Maharashtra’s Pune district on Wednesday morning, fire officials said.
VIDEO | Several people dead in a fire that broke out due to short circuit in an electronics and hardware store in Pune in the wee hours of Wednesday. More details are awaited.
The incident took place at 5.25 am in the shop located in Pooja Heights building at Purna Nagar in Chikhli area of Pimpri Chinchwad, they said.
“So far, bodies of four people, who were sleeping on the mezzanine of the hardware shop located on the building’s ground floor, have been recovered,” a fire official from the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation said.
The blaze has been extinguished and cooling process is on, he said.
Officials said a short-circuit may have caused the fire. However, an investigation is on, they added The deceased have been identified as Chimnaram Chowdhary (48), Namrata Chimnaram Chowdhary (40), Bhavesh Chowdhary (15) and Sachin Choudhary (13), the officials said.
Florida residents living in vulnerable coastal areas were ordered to pack up and leave as Hurricane Idalia gained steam in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and authorities warned of a “catastrophic storm surge and destructive winds” when the storm moves ashore Wednesday morning.
Idalia was packing sustained winds of 110 mph (177 kph) early Wednesday, after growing into a Category 2 system on Tuesday afternoon. It was projected to make landfall later Wednesday morning as a Category 4 storm with winds of at least 130 mph (209 kph) in the lightly populated Big Bend region, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula. The result could be a big blow to a state still dealing with lingering damage from last year’s Hurricane Ian.
The National Weather Service in Tallahassee called Idalia “an unprecedented event” since no major hurricanes on record have ever passed through the bay abutting the Big Bend.
On the island of Cedar Key, Commissioner Sue Colson joined other city officials in packing up documents and electronics at City Hall on Tuesday. She had a message for the almost 900 residents who were under mandatory orders to evacuate. More than a dozen state troopers went door to door warning residents that storm surge could rise as high as 15 feet (4.5 meters).
“One word: Leave,” Colson said. “It’s not something to discuss.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis repeated the warning at Tuesday afternoon news conference.
“You really gotta go now. Now is the time,” he said. Earlier, the governor stressed that residents didn’t necessarily need to leave the state, but should “get to higher ground in a safe structure.”
Tybee Island, Ga., resident Bryan Moore helps his friend board up his house on the island, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023, ahead of Hurricane Idalia. (Stephen B. Morton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Not everyone was heeding the warning. Andy Bair, owner of the Island Hotel, said he intended to “babysit” his bed-and-breakfast, which predates the Civil War. The building has not flooded in the almost 20 years he has owned it, not even when Hurricane Hermine flooded the city in 2016.
“Being a caretaker of the oldest building in Cedar Key, I just feel kind of like I need to be here,” Bair said. “We’ve proven time and again that we’re not going to wash away. We may be a little uncomfortable for a couple of days, but we’ll be OK eventually.”
Tolls were waived on highways out of the danger area, shelters were open and hotels prepared to take in evacuees. More than 30,000 utility workers were gathering to make repairs as quickly as possible in the hurricane’s wake. About 5,500 National Guard troops were activated.
It is reported that P&O ship Britannia, carrying thousands of passengers, crashed into a freight vessel on Sunday morning.
Stormy weather reportedly sent P&O’s Britannia cruise liner smashing into a freight vessel. Pic: Stephen Marsh
People have been injured after a P&O cruise liner was involved in a “weather-related incident” in Mallorca, the company has said.
It is reported that P&O ship Britannia, carrying thousands of travellers, crashed into a freight vessel on Sunday morning during severe storms.
One passenger’s footage showed torrid gusts sweeping across the waves from the ship’s window.
P&O Cruises told Sky News the ship was involved in a “weather-related incident” alongside the port in Palma, Mallorca’s capital.
The company added that a “small number of people” sustained minor injuries and were being treated by their onboard medical team.
It added that it would make an assessment of Britannia, which would remain in Palma for the night with “onboard entertainment and activities scheduled”.
A fire broke out in a tourist coach of a train that was en route from Lucknow to Rameshwaram near Madurai railway station, leaving nine people dead and 20 others injured.
Four dead in train fire accident near Madurai railway station.
At least nine people died and 20 others sustained injuries after a major fire erupted on a train at Tamil Nadu’s Madurai railway station on Saturday. The Railways has announced an ex gratia of Rs 10 lakh to the families of deceased. The blaze was reported at nearly 5:15 am inside a private party coach, while the train was parked at the Madurai yard.
The adjacent coaches of the train did not suffer any damage as the fire tenders were immediately called in and the flames were doused by nearly 7 am.
According to the details, as many as 65 passengers from Lucknow were onboard the coach, which was engulfed in flames.
While the coach was parked at the yard, some passengers reportedly used illegally smuggled cooking gas cylinders to prepare tea and snacks, thus, giving way to the fire.
Commenting on the incident, Madurai District Collector MS Sangeetha said, “Around 5.30 am today, there was a fire in a coach halted here at Madurai railway station. There were pilgrims travelling from Uttar Pradesh in it. When they lit the gas stove to make coffee, the gas cylinder blasted. As of now, we have retrieved nine bodies.”
The private party coach had begun its journey from Lucknow on August 17 and was scheduled to reach Chennai by Sunday.
Helpline numbers (9360552608, 8015681915) were provided to share information related to the fire incident and causalities.
As per reports, around eight people have lost their lives and around 20 people are reported injured in the incident.
Train Catches Fire In Madurai | Twitter
In a shocking incident, a massive fire broke out in a tourist train that was parked near the station in Madurai on Saturday. As per reports, around eight people have lost their lives and around 20 people are reported injured in the incident. The injured have been taken to Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai. A firefighting and rescue operation was carried out after the blaze erupted. The incident occurred in the early hours of the morning when the Bharat Gaurav tourist train from Lucknow was halted a few kilometres before the Madurai Railway Station. An ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh has been announced to the next to kin of the deceased.
The fire has been doused and rescue operation underway
The horrific videos of the train engulfed by a massive blaze are doing rounds on social media. As per reports, the train stopped a few kilometres before the railway station in Madurai and was parked at the spot when the fire broke out in one of the coaches of the train which further spread to another coach of the train. The fire has been doused by the fire fighting department. It can be seen in the video that the rescue operators are trying to enter the train compartment after dousing the blaze.
Gas cylinders smuggled inside train
The reason of the cause of the fire is not known yet. However, the authorities claim after conducting initial investigations that few passengers in the train were using gas cylinder to cook food inside the train. The fire then spread from one coach to the other. Most of the passengers managed to flee the compartments that caught fire. However, the passengers who were elderly could not escape the train on time and died after being burnt inside the coach.
#TrainAccident Train fire accident in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
IndiGo Flight Emergency landing: At nearly 8 pm, a passenger on a Mumbai to Ranchi IndiGo flight, Devanand Tiwari, started vomiting blood. After an emergency landing, the patient was rushed to a private hospital in Nagpur for medical assistance.
Indigo condoled the demise of its passenger and expressed grief on the incident
A Mumbai-Ranchi IndiGo flight made an emergency landing at Nagpur on Monday evening after a passenger suffered a medical emergency, PTI cited an official as saying. The 62-year-old male passenger has been identified as Devanand Tiwari.
According to Aejaz Shami, DGM, Branding and Communications of KIMS Hospital, Nagpur, the man was suffering from CKD and tuberculosis and vomited blood on board.
“He was brought dead to the KIMS hospital. His body was taken to Government Medical College and Hospital for further procedures,” Shami said in a statement.
At nearly 8 pm, a passenger on a Mumbai to Ranchi IndiGo flight, Devanand Tiwari, started vomiting blood. After an emergency landing, the patient was rushed to a private hospital in Nagpur for medical assistance. However, he died at the hospital.
Condoling the demise of the passenger, IndiGo said, “IndiGo flight 6E 5093, operating from Mumbai to Ranchi was diverted to Nagpur due to a medical emergency on board. The passenger was offloaded and was rushed to the hospital for further medical assistance. Unfortunately, the passenger did not survive. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones.”
Earlier on August 4, an IndiGo flight made an emergency landing at the Jay Prakash Narayan International Airport in Bihar’s Patna on Friday morning after it developed a technical snag.
Weather Update: Heavy Rain To Lash Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, IMD Issues Orange Alert
According to airport officials, the IndiGo flight – 6E 2433 bound for Delhi made an emergency landing at Patna airport at 9:11 AM after reporting an inoperative engine.
VILNIUS, Lithuania — The Biden administration is urging U.S. citizens in Belarus to depart the country immediately and warned against travel there in a statement published Monday.
The updated travel warning comes after bordering countries Lithuania, Latvia and Poland have stepped up security along the border over concerns about Russian Wagner mercenary forces exiled in the country.
The State Department, in its warning, encouraged Americans still in Belarus to depart the country immediately and categorized the country as a Level 4 risk, the highest security warning.
Belarus’s longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko, known as Europe’s last dictator, has been a key facilitator of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, and is under a catalog of U.S. sanctions for human rights abuses and political repression against Belarusian people who challenged his claim to election victory in 2020.
The U.S. mission in Belarus is scaled down and only handles emergency American Citizen Services.
Lukashenko’s welcoming of Wagner forces in a deal with Putin that ended the mercenary group’s short-lived rebellion against the Kremlin has raised concern in NATO-member countries on its border.
“Do not travel to Belarus due to Belarusian authorities’ continued facilitation of Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine, the buildup of Russian military forces in Belarus, the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, the potential of civil unrest, the risk of detention, and the Embassy’s limited ability to assist U.S. citizens residing in or traveling to Belarus,” the State Department wrote in its warning.
Last week, Lithuania closed two of its six border crossings with Belarus. The State Department urged Americans to travel through the remaining, open border crossings, warning that the Polish, Lithuanian, and Latvian governments have stated that further closures of border crossings with Belarus are possible.
The police spokesperson said that the bomb exploded in a van in North Waziristan.
As many as 11 labourers were killed and two sustained injured in a bomb blast in the Gulmir Kot area in Pakistan’s North Waziristan(Representational image)
As many as 11 labourers were killed and two sustained injured in a bomb blast in the Gulmir Kot area in Pakistan’s North Waziristan, ARY News reported on Saturday.
The police spokesperson said that the bomb exploded in a van in North Waziristan.
Further details are awaited in the matter.
Notably, this attack comes weeks after the massive suicide blast in Bajaur, in which at least 63 people including 23 children were killed and over 200 people sustained injuries.
The responsibility for the blast was claimed by the Islamic State group, according to Al Jazeera.
The bombing targeted an election rally in Pakistan’s border district of Bajaur.
A bomber detonated an explosives-packed vest near the platform as some 400 members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) party, a significant government coalition partner led by hardline politician Fazlur Rehman, awaited the start of the speeches.
The suicide bomber detonated explosives when JUI-F members and supporters gathered in the town of Khar, near the border with Afghanistan. The convention started at 2 pm, and the explosion happened at 4:10 pm, according to the officials.
Seven people including a 6-year-old girl were killed, 144 wounded, and 41 were in hospital after a Russian missile struck a central square in the historic northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said.
“I am sure our soldiers will give a response to Russia for this terrorist attack,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address, delivered early on Sunday at the end of a visit to Sweden. “A notable response.”
He said that of the 144 people injured, 15 were children, and named the girl killed as Sofia. Fifteen others were police officers, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram. Klymenko said most of the victims were in vehicles, crossing the road, or returning from church.
Regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said 41 people were in hospital on Saturday.
Zelenskiy said the strike on Chernihiv, a city of leafy boulevards and centuries-old churches about 145 km (90 miles) north of Kyiv, coincided with the Orthodox holiday of the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord.
Debris was scattered across a square in front of the damaged theatre and surrounding buildings, where parked vehicles were heavily damaged. A 63-year-old who only gave her first name, Valentyna, showed the damaged balcony in her apartment opposite the theatre.
“It is horrific. Horrific. There were wounded, ambulances and broken glass in here. Nightmare. Just nightmare,” she said.
Rescuers work at a site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Chernihiv, Ukraine August 19, 2023. National Police/Handout via REUTERS
The roof of the neoclassical theatre was torn off by the strike.
Russia has attacked Ukrainian cities far from the frontline with missiles and drones as part of the full-scale invasion that began in February 2022.
People leaving church and others passing by were among those hurt when the missile hit the theatre, where a meeting was taking place, Chaus said.
Law enforcement agencies were looking into how Russians became aware of the event, which he said included business and community representatives but Ukrainian media reported involved drone manufacturers. Both sides have widely used drones on the battlefield.
Warning: This story contains details that some readers may find distressing
Lahaina, once Hawaii’s royal capital, is now a crematorium.
“We pick up remains and they fall apart,” said Maui County police chief John Pelletier on Saturday, four days after a massive wildfire tore downhill through dry brush and grass and engulfed the island’s western edge.
Close to 100 deaths have been confirmed, making the Lahaina wildfires the deadliest in the US in more than a century.
But just 3% of Lahaina’s charred ruins have been searched so far, stoking fears that the death toll will continue its sharp climb.
“None of us really know the size of it yet,” chief Pelletier warned, growing visibly emotional.
Dozens of survivors shared their stories of escape and loss with the BBC, helping to piece together a more complete picture of the tragedy that unfolded on Tuesday, when fires moving at a mile per minute consumed the town.
One thing seemed to unite their accounts: residents say they had no official warning before they fled for their lives, raising painful questions about the effectiveness of the emergency response and whether more people could have been saved.
Smoke billows as wildfires destroy a large part of the historic town of Lahaina
On Tuesday morning, Lahaina residents woke up to find their power was out. Phones hadn’t charged, alarm clocks stayed quiet and air conditioners shut down.
For Les Munn, a 42-year-old resident, the outage announced itself in a dropped call to the country’s east coast. He had woken up at 4:00am that day to accommodate the six-hour time difference. Mid-conversation, the connection was cut.
But the outage alone wasn’t especially concerning, Munn said.
“I just thought it was going to be another blackout,” he said, noting the trade winds that frequently hammer the coast.
Munn, like most others, assumed this outage was linked to nearby Hurricane Dora, which authorities had warned could bring gusts of up to 65mph (105kph) to Maui.
And at that time, the local fires apparently fuelled by Dora’s winds seemed insignificant.
By 9:55am, officials had declared the Lahaina brush fire “100% contained”. Residents were given no indication it would flare up again.
Richard Tenison, a homeless Lahaina resident, woke up to the rushing winds. Standing up near the door of a pharmacy where he had set up for the night, he watched as his bedding was carried by the wind into the harbour.
The weather was building, said Lynn Robison, who lived in the heart of the historic town. By 8am she got her first whiff of smoke, an odour that would build throughout the day. But at that point concerns were muted. Hawaii was used to storms.
