dead
252 dead as Indonesia earthquake topples homes, buildings, roads
The death toll from the earthquake that shook the Indonesian island of Java leapt to 252 on Tuesday as more bodies were found beneath collapsed buildings.
The Cianjur regional disaster mitigation agency said on its Instagram site that the number of dead increased from 162 reported the night before. Another 31 people remain missing and hundreds were injured.
The city of Cianjur, south of Jakarta, was near the epicenter of the 5.6 magnitude earthquake that hit Monday afternoon. The temblor sent terrified residents fleeing into the streets, some covered in blood and debris, and caused buildings around the rural area to collapse.
One woman told The Associated Press that when the earthquake hit, her home in Cianjur started “shaking like it was dancing.”
“I was crying and immediately grabbed my husband and children,” said the woman, who gave her name only as Partinem. The house collapsed shortly after she escaped with her family.
“If I didn't pull them out we might have also been victims,” she said, gazing over the pile of concrete and timber rubble.
In addition to those killed, authorities reported more than 300 people were seriously hurt and at least 600 more suffered minor injuries.
Unidentified man found lying unconscious on Motijheel street dies at DMCH
An unidentified man found lying unconscious on the street of the capital's prime commercial area Motijheel died hours after being taken to hospital Wednesday, police said.
"Pedestrians found the 48-year-old on the street opposite the Railway Officer's Quarters. They took him to Islami Bank Hospital at 3:30pm. The man was later shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) as his condition worsened. He was declared dead at 7:15pm there," Sub-Inspector Aminul Islam of Motijheel Police Station said.
"The body was sent to the hospital morgue for a postmortem examination," Inspector Bachchu Mia, in-charge of DMCH police outpost said.
Read more: Two unidentified bodies recovered from Dhaka streets
Missing BUET student found dead after 3 days
The body of a Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) student was fished out of the Shitalakshya River on Monday, three days after he went missing.
The deceased was identified as Fardin Noor Parash, 24, son of Kazi Nuruddin Rana of Qutubpur area of Narayanganj's Fatullah, said Moniruzzaman, officer-in-charge of Narayanganj Sadar Naval Police.
He was a 3rd-year student of the civil engineering department of BUET.
On November 4, Parash left home and did not return. He was also incommunicado.
Later, his father filed a general diary at Rampura Police station in this regard.
Monday afternoon, the dead body was seen floating on the river just behind a cotton mill at Siddhirganj.
On information, police rushed to the spot and recovered the body, added the OC.
Read more: Speedboats collision in Kaptai lake: Bodies of 2 missing students recovered
Woman found dead in Chattogram water tank
The body of a 21-year-old woman was recovered from a water tank of a house at Bandartila in Chattogram city on Saturday night.
The deceased was identified as Marjina Akter, daughter of Wahidul Gazi of Bauphal upazila in Patuakhali district.
Abdul Karim, officer-in-charge of Export Processing Zone (EPZ) Police Station, said Marjina along with her husband Md. Hasan and seven-month-old baby used to live on the 4th floor of a building.
Read more: Two unidentified bodies recovered from Dhaka streets
Marjina remained missing since Thursday afternoon. Getting no whereabouts, Hasan lodged a general diary with EPZ Police Station on Friday.
On Saturday night, the residents of the building complained to the house owner about bad odor from the water tank of the building.
On information, police went to the spot and recovered the decomposed body of Marjina.
Police suspected that Hasan might have killed his wife and dumped the body into the water tank.
Hasan went into hiding after the recovery of her body.
Fisherman turns up dead after launch hits boat in Bhola
A fisherman was killed and another suffered injuries as a launch hit their fishing boat in the Meghna River in Bhola early Saturday.
The deceased was identified as Md Kamal Jomaddar, 40, son of Aziz Jomaddar of Kondokpur village in Rajapur union of the upazila. The injured is Yusuf, son of Jasim Dhali of the same area.
Locals said a launch hit their boat while they were fishing in the Meghna River of Rajapur union in the early hours of Saturday. Yusuf managed to swim ashore but Kamal went missing.
Read: Death toll from Karatoa boat capsize rises to 68
On information, Coast Guard members started a rescue operation in the area and recovered the body of Kamal around 2pm today, said the Coast Guard’s South Zone Media Officer Lieut. KM Shafiul Kinzel.
The dead body will be handed over to the family of the deceased following due process, Shafiul added.
Businessman shot dead in Rajbari
Miscreants gunned down a businessman at a tea stall in Sadar upazila of the district on Saturday evening, police said.
The deceased has been identified as Ariful Islam, 25, son of Abdur Razzak of Khankhanapur’s Sardarpara in the upazila and poultry businessman.
Local Abul Kalam said Ariful was sitting on a bench at a tea stall in front of Suraj Mohini Institute High School nearby Khankhanapur Union Parishad around 6pm.
A group of miscreants on two motorbikes from Khankhanapur Bazar shot him dead, he said.
He sustained bullet injuries in the head and chest causing immense bleeding, local Kalam depicted.
Read: AL activist shot dead in broad daylight at Pabna tea stall
Shawkat Hasan, inspector of Khankhanapur police investigation centre, said they have been working to unearth the reason for the murder and identify the killers.
He also said they collected some samples from the spot where higher ups officers, including superintendent of police, visited.
5 dead after New Zealand boat flips in possible whale strike
Five people died Saturday in New Zealand after the small charter boat they were aboard capsized, authorities say, in what may have been a collision with a whale. Another six people aboard the boat were rescued.
Police said the 8.5-meter (28-foot) boat overturned near the South Island town of Kaikōura. Police said they were continuing to investigate the cause of the accident.
Kaikōura Police Sergeant Matt Boyce described it as a devastating and unprecedented event.
“Our thoughts are with everyone involved, including the victims and their families, their local communities, and emergency services personnel,” Boyce said.
He said police divers had recovered the bodies of all those who had died. He said all six survivors were assessed to be in stable condition at a local health center, with one transferred to a hospital in the city of Christchurch as a precaution.
Kaikōura Mayor Craig Mackle told The Associated Press that the water was dead calm at the time of the accident and the assumption was that a whale had surfaced from beneath the boat.
He said there were some sperm whales in the area and also some humpback whales traveling through.
He said locals had helped with the rescue efforts throughout the day but the mood in the town was “somber” because the water was so cold and they feared for the outcome of anybody who had fallen overboard.
Read: Whale carcass washes ashore on Cox’s Bazar beach
Mackle said he’d thought in the past about the possibility of a boat and whale colliding, given the number of whales that frequent the region.
“It always plays on your mind that it could happen,” he said, adding that he hadn’t heard about any previous such accidents.
Mackle said the boat was a charter vessel typically used for fishing excursions. News agency Stuff reported the passengers belonged to a bird enthusiasts' group.
Police said they were still notifying the relatives of those who died, and couldn't yet publicly name the victims.
Vanessa Chapman told Stuff she and a group of friends had watched the rescue efforts unfold from Goose Bay, near Kaikōura. She said that when she arrived at a lookout spot, she could see a person sitting atop an overturned boat waving their arms.
She said two rescue helicopters and a third local helicopter were circling before two divers jumped out. She told Stuff that the person atop the boat was rescued and a second person appeared to have been pulled from the water.
Kaikōura is a popular whale-watching destination. The seafloor drops away precipitously from the coast, making for deep waters close to the shore. A number of businesses offer boat trips or helicopter rides so tourists can see whales, dolphins and other sea creatures up close.
Compliance agency Maritime New Zealand said it sent two investigators to the scene and would be conducting a thorough investigation once recovery operations had concluded.
Principal Investigator Tracy Phillips said the agency “offers its heartfelt condolences to the family and loved ones of the people who have died.”
Southwest China quake leaves 30 dead, triggers landslides
At least 30 people were reported killed in a 6.8 magnitude earthquake that shook China’s southwestern province of Sichuan on Monday, triggering landslides and shaking buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu, whose 21 million residents are already under a COVID-19 lockdown.
The quake struck a mountainous area in Luding county shortly after noon, the China Earthquake Networks Center said.
Sichuan, which sits on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau where tectonic plates meet, is regularly hit by earthquakes. Two quakes in June killed at least four people.
The death toll rose to 30 as the search for trapped people continued Monday night, state media said.
Earlier, authorities had reported 7 deaths in Luding county and 14 more in neighboring Shimian county to the south. Three of the dead were workers at the Hailuogou Scenic Area, a glacier and forest nature reserve.
Also read: Strong undersea quake causes panic in western Indonesia
Along with the deaths, authorities reported stones and soil falling from mountainsides, causing damage to homes and power interruptions, state broadcaster CCTV said. One landslide blocked a rural highway, leaving it strewn with rocks, the Ministry of Emergency Management said.
Buildings shook in Chengdu, 200 kilometers (125 miles) away from the epicenter. Resident Jiang Danli said she hid under a desk for five minutes in her 31st floor apartment. Many of her neighbors rushed downstairs, wary of aftershocks.
“There was a strong earthquake in June, but it wasn’t very scary. This time I was really scared, because I live on a high floor and the shaking made me dizzy,” she told The Associated Press.
The earthquake and lockdown follow a heat wave and drought that led to water shortages and power cuts due to Sichuan’s reliance on hydropower. That comes on top of the latest major lockdown under China’s strict “zero-COVID” policy.
The past two months in Chengdu “have been weird,” Jiang said.
Also read: 7.3 earthquake hits north Philippines, causes some damage
The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a magnitude of 6.6 for Monday’s quake at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles). Preliminary measurements by different agencies often differ slightly.
China’s deadliest earthquake in recent years was a 7.9 magnitude quake in 2008 that killed nearly 90,000 people in Sichuan. The temblor devastated towns, schools and rural communities outside Chengdu, leading to a years-long effort to rebuild with more resistant materials.
Traffic accident leaves man dead in Kushtia
A man died as a drum-laden truck hit his motorbike in Shahartali area of the district on Saturday afternoon.
The deceased was identified as Moninur Islam Monu, 37, son of late Aftab Biswas of Thanapara area under Kushtia Sadar Upzila. He was an employee of KIAM Metal Industries Limited, a concern of BRB Group.
Witnesses said the accident occurred on Saturday evening, when the speeding truck rammed into Monu’s bike from behind, while he was on his way home after work in front of LGRD Bhaban in the Shahartali area.
Read: 3 BAEC officials among 6 killed in Savar road crash
The accident left him dead on the spot, they said.
The mob detained the driver and seized the vehicle and handed over to the police, Delwar Hossain, officer-in-charge of Kusthtia Model Police Station, told UNB.
Bus collision at accident site leaves 15 dead in Turkey
A passenger bus collided Saturday with emergency teams handling an earlier road accident in southern Turkey, leaving at least 15 people dead and nearly two dozen injured, officials said.
Three firefighters, two paramedics and two journalists were among those killed on the highway between Gaziantep and Nizip, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu tweeted. The other eight fatalities were on the bus, he added.
Gaziantep Gov. Davut Gul said 22 other people were injured in the incident.
The Ilhas News Agency said two of its journalists were killed after pulling over to help the victims of the initial accident, in which a car came off the highway and slid down an embankment.
Read: Traffic accident in heavy rain in Pakistan leaves 13 dead
Television footage showed an ambulance with severe damage to its rear while the bus lay on its side alongside the highway.
Turkey has a poor record of road safety. Some 5,362 people were killed in traffic accidents last year, according to the government.