death toll
Barishal ferry tragedy: Death toll rises to 4
The death toll from the ferry capsize in the Gazaria river of Barishal rose to four, with the recovery of the body of a four-year-old boy on Saturday.
While a mother-daughter duo drowned, the boy and two others went missing after their ferry capsized in the river off the coast of Mehendiganj upazila on Friday morning.
The deceased boy was identified as Ruhan Hawlader, son of Muntaj Hawlader of the Majhirchar area in the upazila.
Also read: Two drown, 3 missing as ferry sinks off Barishal coast
“Local fishermen spotted the body, some six to seven kilometres from the accident spot, around 12pm and informed us. On information, police rushed to the spot,” said Shafiqul Islam, officer-in-charge of Mehendiganj Police Station.
Efforts are on to find the two others missing in the ferry tragedy, he added.
Local lawmaker Pankaj Debnath visited the spot and assured the families of the victims of all cooperation.
Also read: Fish trader found dead in Barishal hotel
Death toll climbs to 63 in deadly Pakistan IS mosque attack
Officials vowed Saturday to hunt down and arrest the masterminds behind a deadly mosque attack in Pakistan a day earlier claimed by an Islamic State affiliate. The assault killed 63 people and wounded nearly 200.
IS said in a statement the lone suicide bomber was from neighboring Afghanistan. He shot two police guarding the Shiite Muslim mosque in northwest Peshawar before entering inside and exploding his device, it said. The attack took place as worshipers knelt in Friday prayer. The IS affiliate, known as IS in Khorasan Province, is headquartered in eastern Afghanistan.
The Taliban rulers in Afghanistan, who have been fighting IS, condemned the attack. IS has proven to be the Taliban's greatest security threat since sweeping into power last August.
“We condemn the bombing of a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan. There is no justification for attacking civilians and worshipers," Taliban Deputy Minister for Culture and Information Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted. He refused to comment on the IS claim that the suicide bomber was Afghan.
The death toll was likely to continue to rise, said Asim Khan, spokesman for Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital. At least four of 38 patients still hospitalized are in critical condition, he said.
Also read: IS claims Pakistan bombing that kills 56 at Shiite mosque
Late into Friday night and early Saturday, Pakistanis buried their dead amid heavy security, with sniffer dogs deployed. Police carried out body searches of mourners who were then searched a second time by security provided by Pakistan's Shiite community.
Hundreds of mourners crying and beating their chests attended funeral prayers for 13 victims late Friday and for another 11 on Saturday at Peshawar's Kohati Gate. The coffins were covered with shrouds, some with Quranic sayings. They were lined up on open ground, made visible by bare light bulbs.
"These were human beings and worshipers inside the mosque, and they were brutally killed at a time when they were busy praying to God," Hayat Khan told The Associated Press late Friday night as he buried a relative.
One of the police officers who was shot outside Kucha Risaldar mosque died immediately and the second died later from his wounds, police officials said.
Pakistan Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said in a statement that three investigation teams were established to study forensic evidence and closed-circuit TV footage to track down the attack's organizers.
In CCTV footage seen by The Associated Press, the lone attacker concealed his bomb beneath a large black shawl. The footage showed the bomber moving quickly up a narrow street toward the mosque entrance. He fired at the police protecting the mosque before entering inside.
Also read: 10 killed in blast in eastern India
Within seconds, there is a powerful explosion and the camera lens is obscured with dust and debris. The crudely made device was packed with ball bearings, a deadly method of constructing a bomb to inflict maximum carnage because it sprays deadly projectiles over a large area. The ball bearings caused the high death toll, said Moazzam Jah Ansari, the top police official for Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province, where Peshawar is the capital.
Immediately after the bombing, Pakistan's minority Shiites slammed the government for lax security arrangements demanding greater attention to their safety.
Friday's attack in Peshawar's congested old city was the worst in years in Pakistan. The country has seen renewed militant attacks after several years of relative quiet that followed military operations against militant hideouts in the border regions with Afghanistan.
The attacks have mostly been carried out by the Pakistani Taliban since last August when the Afghan Taliban swept into power and America ended its 20-year involvement in Afghanistan. The Pakistan Taliban are not connected to the new Afghan rulers. However, they are hiding out in Afghanistan and despite Pakistan's repeated request to hand them over, none have yet been found and expelled.
The Islamic State affiliate, often referred to as IS-K, is an enemy of the Afghan Taliban and has carried out successive operations against them since coming into power last year. Pakistani security officials have insisted IS has little presence in Pakistan, yet in their statement claiming responsibility for the mosque attack, IS vowed to carry out more attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“Islamic State fighters are constantly targeting Shiites living in Pakistan and Afghanistan despite the intense security measures adopted by the Taliban militia and the Pakistani police to secure Shi’a temples and centers," said the IS statement carried on its Amaq News Agency site.
Covid-19 in Bangladesh: Death toll drops to 4 with positivity rate at 3.65%
Bangladesh logged four more Covid-linked deaths with 897 fresh cases in 24 hours till Monday morning as the positivity rate kept declining.
The daily positivity rate slightly declined to 3.65 per cent from Sunday’s 4.01 per cent after testing 24,605 samples during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
On Sunday, Bangladesh reported nine Covid-linked deaths with 864 fresh cases. On Saturday, less than 1000 cases were reported after 52 days on Saturday with 759 cases and 8 more Covid-linked deaths. The country last logged 892 cases with three deaths on January 5 this year.
Also read: Covid-19 in Bangladesh: Positivity rate drops to 4.01%, 9 more die
The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatalities to 29,037 while the caseload to 19,43,577.
Of the 67 deaths recorded from February 21 to February 27, some 26.5 per cent received Covid vaccines while 73.5 per cent did not, the DGHS mentioned.
Comorbidities among the deceased patients decreased 1.3 per cent this week compared to the previous one. Comorbidity means the simultaneous presence of two or more diseases or medical conditions in a patient.
Among the new deceased, two were men and two women.
Two deaths were reported from Dhaka division while one each from Chattogram and Khulna division.
Meanwhile, the mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent.
However, the recovery rate increased to 93.37 per cent with the recovery of 7,976 more patients during the 24-hour period.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its earlier highest daily positivity rate at 33.37 per cent reporting 15,440 cases and 20 deaths.
On December 9 last year, Bangladesh again logged zero Covid-related death after nearly three weeks as the pandemic was apparently showing signs of easing.
Also read: Global Covid cases surpass 435 million
The country reported first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 last year along with 178 infections since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020.
Besides, the country registered the highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year, while the highest number of daily fatalities was 264 on August 10 last year.
Brazil mudslide death toll is at 117, police say 116 missing
The death toll from floods and landslides that swept down on the mountain city of Petropolis rose to at least 117 on Thursday and local officials said it could still rise sharply, with 116 more still unaccounted for.
The Rio de Janeiro state government confirmed the rising loss of life, with many feared buried in mud beneath the German-influenced city nestled in the mountains above the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Torrents of floodwaters and mudslides dragged cars and houses through the streets of the city Tuesday during the most intense rainfall in decades. One video showed two buses sinking into a swollen river as its passengers clambered out the windows, scrambling for safety. Some didn’t make it to the banks and were washed away, out of sight.
Survivors dug through the ruined landscape to find loved ones even as more landslides appeared likely on the city’s slopes. A small slide Thursday prompted an evacuation but didn’t cause injuries.
Also read: Brazil mudslides kill at least 94, with dozens still missing
As evening came, heavy showers returned to the region, sparking renewed concern among residents and rescue workers. Authorities insisted those living in at-risk areas should evacuate.
Rosilene Virginia’ said her brother barely escaped, and she considers it a miracle. But a friend hasn’t yet been found.
“It’s very sad to see people asking for help and having no way of helping, no way of doing anything,” Virginia told The Associated Press as a man comforted her. “It’s desperate, a feeling of loss so great.”
As some people tried to clear away mud, others began burying lost relatives, with 17 funerals at the damaged cemetery.
Rio police said in a statement Thursday that about 200 agents were checking lists of the living, the dead and the missing by visiting checkpoints and shelters, as well as the city’s morgue. They said they managed to remove three people from a list of missing after finding them alive in a local school.
Also read: 5 killed in Christmas morning gunfire in northeast Brazil
“Every detail is important so we can track people,” said Rio police investigator Elen Souto. “We need people to inform the full name of the missing person, their ID, physical traits and the clothes that person was wearing.”
Petropolis, named for a former Brazilian emperor, has been a refuge for people escaping the summer heat and tourists keen to explore the so-called “Imperial City.”
Its prosperity has also drawn residents from Rio’s poorer regions and the population grew haphazardly, climbing mountainsides now covered with small residences packed tightly together, often in areas made more vulnerable by deforestation and inadequate drainage.
The state fire department said 25.8 centimeters (just over 10 inches) of rain fell within three hours on Tuesday -- almost as much as during the previous 30 days combined. Rio de Janeiro’s Gov. Claudio Castro said in a press conference that the rains were the worst Petropolis has received since 1932.
“No one could predict rain as hard as this,” Castro said. More rain was expected through the rest of the week, according to weather forecasters.
Castro added that almost 400 people were left homeless and 24 people were recovered alive. They were fortunate, and they were few.
Lisa Torres Machado, 64, said “the hand of God” spared her family from tragedy.
“A little room was left at my mom’s house and she hid there with my two sisters and brother,” Machado, a resident of Petropolis for three decades, told the AP. “I can’t sleep. I still can’t believe what’s happening. We lost all our friends.
The stricken mountain region has seen similar catastrophes in recent decades, including one that caused more than 900 deaths. In the years since, Petropolis presented a plan to reduce risks of landslides, but works have advanced only slowly. The plan, presented in 2017, was based on analysis determining that 18% of the city’s territory was at high risk for landslides and flooding.
Local authorities say more than 180 residents who live in at-risk areas were sheltering in schools. More equipment and manpower was expected to help rescue efforts on Thursday.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro expressed solidarity while on a trip to Russia. Petropolis’ city hall declared three days of mourning for the tragedy.
Southeastern Brazil has been punished with heavy rains since the start of the year, with more than 40 deaths recorded between incidents in Minas Gerais state in early January and Sao Paulo state later the same month.
9 dead in India train accident
The death toll in the India rail tragedy rose to nine Friday morning, as rescuers called off the search for survivors in the wreckage of the train that derailed in the eastern state of West Bengal Thursday evening.
As many as 12 coaches of the Guwahati-Bikaner Express came off the rails at 5pm (local time) on Thursday near Maynaguri town of Bengal's Jalpaiguri district. Some of the coaches even overturned in the impact.
Apart from the nine deaths, some 50 people sustained injuries in the accident, an Indian Railways official told UNB in Delhi. "All the injured, including the serious ones, are being treated at different hospitals."
Also read: 4 killed in Kushtia road accident
Jalpaiguri district magistrate Moumita Basu told the local media that rescuers searched all coaches of the ill-fated train for survivors and bodies through darkness and thick fog."We sent generators to light up the site."
Local TV channels beamed footage of the rescue operations and people searching for their missing family members at hospitals and the crash site.
In a statement, the Indian Railways said the train was carrying 1,053 passengers from the western state of Rajasthan to Assam in the northeast when it derailed in Bengal. It was running three hours behind schedule.
Indian Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that he was "personally monitoring" the situation. "We will fulfill all of our duties."
Indian President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted to say that they were deeply saddened by the loss of lives in the accident.
Also read: Greece: 13 dead, others missing in new migrant boat accident
"The derailment of coaches of the Bikaner-Guhawati Express near New Maynaguri, West Bengal is distressing. My thoughts and prayers are with the affected passengers and their families. I wish speedy recovery to the injured," Kovind said.
Prime Minister Modi tweeted, “Spoke to Railways Minister Shri @AshwiniVaishnaw and took stock of the situation in the wake of the train accident in West Bengal. My thoughts are with the bereaved families. May the injured recover quickly.”
"Senior Officers of the State Government, DM/SP/IG North Bengal are supervising rescue and relief operations. Those injured will receive medical attention, as early as possible," Mamata tweeted.
The Indian Railways said that a senior official would lead the probe into the fatal train crash and fix accountability.
The Indian Railways run over 12,000 trains across the country, ferrying nearly 23 million passengers daily. But train accidents are not uncommon in India and are attributed to the ailing rail infrastructure.
Jhalakathi launch fire: Death toll rise to 49
The death toll from last month’s deadly launch fire in Jhalakathi district rose to 49 on Monday as another man succumbed to his injuries at the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.
Also read: Launch fire tragedy: Another 8-year-old victim succumbs to injury
Russel, 38, breathed his last at noon at the hospital, said Coordinator of the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery Dr Samanta Lal Sen.
The fire broke out on the Barguna-bound launch carrying some 800 passengers from Dhaka and it engulfed the entire vessel within 10 minutes on December 24.
Also read: Marine Court sends two drivers of MV Abhijan-10 launch to jail
On December 26, the chief inspector of the Department of Shipping Shafiqur Rahman filed a case against eight people, including four owners of the launch, under the Marine Act with the Marine Court.
Launch tragedy: Death toll climbs to 44
The death toll from Friday's deadly launch fire off the coast of Jhalakathi rose to 44, with the recovery of two more bodies from the Sugandha River on Tuesday.
The bodies of the unidentified people were fished out by firefighters from the waters adjacent to the Jhalakathi launch terminal at Shachilapur in the district, said Shafiq, deputy assistant director of the district fire service.
The deceased were a boy aged around 12 and a man aged around 32, according to the Jhalakathi Fire Service and Civil Defence.
The man’s face was burnt beyond recognition and he was wearing an off-white sweater and jeans, said Shafiq. "The body has been sent for an autopsy."
Also read: Launch fire: CID collects DNA samples of missing passenger families in Barguna
Meanwhile, Coast Guard members and firefighters continued their search operation in the Sugandha river for the fifth day in a row.
Kentucky's death toll from tornadoes rises to 77
Kentucky’s death toll from devastating tornadoes earlier this month rose by one as Gov. Andy Beshear announced Monday that an infant died last week. The state's revised death toll from the storms is now 77.
The infant, from Graves County in the western part of the state, died last week, the governor said. Mayfield, the county seat, was hit especially hard by the storms, with hundreds of buildings destroyed.
“This is one that rips at the very fabric of who we are,” Beshear said during a news briefing. He was joined by Kentucky first lady Britainy Beshear.
“Britainy and I ask everyone to join us in lifting up this family and their friends and the community in prayer,” he added.
Also read: Tornado, storm death toll at 90 after Ky teen's body found
Debris removal in affected areas is “starting to ramp up,” Beshear added. While around 26% of Graves County is still without power, outages in other counties are down to less than 1%. Meanwhile, some 11,600 insurance claims have been filed.
“Rebuilding these homes and structures and lives is going to take years and we’ve got to make sure when support is needed down the road that we have it ... and we can deploy it there to help these families,” Beshear said.
Also read: Kentucky hardest hit as storms leave dozens dead in 5 states
All together, the storms killed more than 90 people in five states. The National Weather Service recorded at least 41 tornadoes on Dec. 10 and 11, including 16 in Tennessee and eight in Kentucky.
Russia: Death toll in Siberian coal mine blast raised to 52
A devastating explosion in a Siberian coal mine Thursday left 52 miners and rescuers dead about 250 meters (820 feet) underground, Russian officials said.
Hours after a methane gas explosion and fire filled the mine with toxic fumes, rescuers found 14 bodies but then were forced to halt the search for 38 others because of a buildup of methane and carbon monoxide gas from the fire. Another 239 people were rescued.
The state Tass and RIA-Novosti news agencies cited emergency officials as saying that there was no chance of finding any more survivors in the Listvyazhnaya mine, in the Kemerovo region of southwestern Siberia.
The Interfax news agency cited a representative of the regional administration who also put the death toll from Thursday's accident at 52, saying they died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Also read: Russia hits new record for coronavirus infections
It was the deadliest mine accident in Russia since 2010, when two methane explosions and a fire killed 91 people at the Raspadskaya mine in the same Kemerovo region.
A total of 285 people were in the Listvyazhnaya mine early Thursday when the blast sent smoke that quickly filled the mine through the ventilation system. Rescuers led to the surface 239 miners, 49 of whom were injured, and found 11 bodies.
Later in the day, six rescuers also died while searching for others trapped in a remote section of the mine, the news reports said.
Regional officials declared three days of mourning.
Russia’s Deputy Prosecutor General Dmitry Demeshin told reporters that the fire most likely resulted from a methane explosion caused by a spark.
The miners who survived described their shock after reaching the surface.
“Impact. Air. Dust. And then, we smelled gas and just started walking out, as many as we could,” one of the rescued miners, Sergey Golubin, said in televised remarks. “We didn’t even realize what happened at first and took some gas in.”
Also read: 1 dead, 6 missing at northern Mexico coal mine collapse
Another miner, Rustam Chebelkov, recalled the dramatic moment when he was rescued along with his comrades as chaos engulfed the mine.
“I was crawling and then I felt them grabbing me,” he said. “I reached my arms out to them, they couldn’t see me, the visibility was bad. They grabbed me and pulled me out, if not for them, we’d be dead.”
Explosions of methane released from coal beds during mining are rare but they cause the most fatalities in the coal mining industry.
The Interfax news agency reported that miners have oxygen supplies normally lasting for six hours that could only be stretched for a few more hours.
Russia's Investigative Committee has launched a criminal probe into the fire over violations of safety regulations that led to deaths. It said the mine director and two senior managers were detained.
President Vladimir Putin extended his condolences to the families of the dead and ordered the government to offer all necessary assistance to those injured.
Thursday’s fire wasn’t the first deadly accident at the Listvyazhnaya mine. In 2004, a methane explosion left 13 miners dead.
In 2007, a methane explosion at the Ulyanovskaya mine in the Kemerovo region killed 110 miners in the deadliest mine accident since Soviet times.
In 2016, 36 miners were killed in a series of methane explosions in a coal mine in Russia's far north. In the wake of the incident, authorities analyzed the safety of the country's 58 coal mines and declared 20 of them, or 34%, potentially unsafe.
The Listvyazhnaya mine wasn't among them at the time, according to media reports.
Russia’s state technology and ecology watchdog, Rostekhnadzor, inspected the mine in April and registered 139 violations, including breaching fire safety regulations.
Turag trawler capsize: Death toll rises to 5
The death toll from the trawler capsize in the Turag River rose to five with the recovery of the bodies of two more children on Saturday afternoon.
The bodies were retrieved one kilometre off the spot around 4:30pm but their identities could not be known yet, said in-charge of Aminbazar police outpost Sabur Alam.
The sunken trawler has also been salvaged, he said.
Earlier, the bodies of two children and a woman were subsequently fished out of the river.
Kazi Mazharul Islam, officer-in-charge of Savar Police Station, said the Gabtoli-bound vessel with 15 people on board capsized in the river after hitting the bulkhead off the coast of Savar's Aminbazar on the outskirts of Dhaka in the morning.
READ: Trawlers with 24 fishermen capsize in the Bay, one dies
While eight people managed to swim to safety, seven others went missing.
On information, divers from the local fire service station rushed to the spot and launched a rescue operation.
Dinmoni Sharma, deputy director of Fire Service Dhaka Division, said the divers of fire service suspended the rescue operation at 6 pm and it will resume on Sunday morning.
READ: 11 fishers rescued as trawler capsizes in Bay of Bengal