3 killed, 33 injured after school bus accident in Indian-controlled Kashmir

Srinagar - A 14 year old student, a teacher and a driver were killed, while 44 others injured after a bus carrying students on excursion met with and accident at Nambal Nard on Baramulla-Baba Reshi road in district Baramulla of north Kashmir Wednesday.

While the pall of gloom descended on Kalaroos and its adjoining villages, the news of accident created panic in most parts north Kashmir as scores of schools were on excursion from the area. The Education Department has cancelled the registration of the school and withdrew its affiliation.

ACCIDENT 

Police said the bus bearing registration number JK14-6144 was carrying 69 students of Iqra Educational Institute (Middle School) Kalaroos in Kupwara district. The bus police said was on way to Baba Reshi shrine and while crossing a curve at Nambal Nard near Tangmarg, the driver lost control over the vehicle and it fell into a 60 feet deep gorge. “The accident took place at 11.43 am. So far three persons are dead and 44 injured,” Station House Officer Tangmarg Zahoor Ahmad told Greater Kashmir over telephone. “We have registered a case vide FIR number 84 under section 279 and 304 in Police Station Tangmarg and have started investigations.” Police identified the deceased as 14 year old Owais Manzoor Wani, Jehangir Ahmad Dar (25) teacher and bus driver Akhter Hussain Ganie (32). The body of the driver was trapped under the wreckage of the bus, and was retrieved after 3 hours of rescue operation carried jointly by local residents, police and the Army.

Soon after the news of mishap spread, the locals in hundreds from Nambal Nard and its adjoining villages rushed to the spot to rescue the victims. They were later joined by police and the Army contingents in rescue operation. Soon after the new about the accident spread in the area, sources said people made announcements on loudspeakers of the mosques, appealing the people to come out and join the rescue operations. The women were seen carrying potable water and offering it to the injured. The students, sources added were crying for help. “The scene at accident site was frustrating. But we kept our nerves and managed to get the injured out of the bus,” Abdul Rashid of Nambal Nard told Greater Kashmir.

The students, who were being rescued, were shifted to different hospitals of Srinagar. Around 24 were admitted in SMHS, 9 in SKIMS and 11 in JVC. The injured were ferried in ambulances, police and Army vehicles first to Primary Health Center (PHC) Tangmarg and later to hospitals in Srinagar.

In SMHS hospital, the spleen of class 4th student was removed. “We got 24 injured children, spleen of one student was removed and four were shifted to SKIMS,” Medical Superintendent SMHS hospital Dr Nazir Ahmad Chowdhary told Greater Kashmir adding nobody died in his hospital. “Every student is monitored by teams of doctors and hopeful they will recover.”

The officials at SKIMS told Greater Kashmir that nine injured students were brought to institute. “One among them is in Intensive Care Unit,” they said adding that condition of injured is being monitored closely. The officials at JVC hospital said that 14 injured students were brought for treatment among them three were shifted to SKIMS. “Others are being treated and are to some extent stable,” they said.

SCENE AT KALAROOS 

Pall of gloom descended on Kalaroos village once the news of accident spread in the area and its adjoining villages. The parents and other residents were mourning and were trying to get the first hand information about their wards.

The women were wailing and beating their chest and male folk was trying to get the exact details about the tragedy. “Chaos and confusion prevailed in Kalaroos and its adjoining areas soon after the news spread. The people came out of their homes and thronged the roads. They were inquiring from each other about the accident,” Mushtaq Ahmad Lone of Kalaroos told Greater Kashmir over telephone.

The shops in Kalaroos and its adjoining got closed within minutes after news of accident and employees, traders and students of other schools returned, leaving their engagements half way. Most of the other schools in the area also were closed after they heard the news of the tragic accident.

Though, the people were unable to get any communication link with the teachers, but they later relied on the information provided to them by Police Control Room (PCR) Kupwara and police station Kupwara. Most of the parents were successful in arriving at SMHS, SKIMS, JVC and Tangmarg hospitals were the injured were being treated.

NO PERMISSION SOUGHT 

The school neither sought permission for excursion from the Zonal Education Officer Kalaroos nor from Chief Education Officer Kupwara. “They (school management) has not sought permission from my office or ZEO office,” CEO Kupwara Muzzafar Ahmad told Greater Kashmir. “They have left for excursion on their own. No school here approaches us for permission.”

GOVT SHOCKED, ANNOUNCES RELIEF 

Most of ministers have expressed grief over the accident and expressed solidarity with accident victims.

Thursday 12 July 2012

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2012/Jul/12/3-killed-44-injured-as-picnic-bus-rolls-into-gorge-51.asp

Nigeria fuel tanker fire kills 95

At least 95 people including women and children were killed on Thursday after a gasoline tanker crashed on the east-west road in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta and caught fire as people tried to scoop up fuel.

"Early this morning a tanker loaded with petrol fell in Okogbe and people trooped to the scene obviously to scoop the spilled fuel and suddenly there was fire resulting in casualties," Rivers State police spokesman Ben Ugwuegbulam said.

Ugwuegbulam said it was too early to give a casualty figure but a Reuters witness at the scene counted 92 dead bodies of men, women and children.

Two further people died later in hospital, an official added.

Hundreds of people crowded around as soldiers and emergency workers lifted bodies into ambulances and police trucks. The fuel tanker was a pile of smouldering ash, twisted metal and melting tyres.

The tanker swerved as it was trying to avoid a collision with three oncoming vehicles including a bus, said Kayode Olagunju, sector commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission in the southern Rivers state.



Residents said that shortly after the collision hundreds of locals flocked to the site to collect the spilling fuel.
"Then there was an explosion followed by fire," Olagunju told AFP. "Ninety-three were burned to death on the spot. Two died later in the hospital (and) 18 people were seriously injured."

In a statement, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) gave the same figures.
An AFP photographer at the scene said many of those killed were motorcycle taxi operators, known locally as "Okada", who raced to fill up their tanks after learning of the crash.

Olagunju said at least 34 motorcycles were destroyed in the blaze.

The accident happened in an area called Ahoada near the oil hub of Port Harcourt in Nigeria's crude-producing Niger Delta region.

Crashes are common on Nigeria's potholed and poorly maintained roads, and in a region where most people live on less than £1.50 a day, the chance to collect spilling petrol is too much of a temptation, despite the high risk of fires.

The east-west road, which runs across the oil-producing region, has been scheduled for development for almost a decade and money is allocated for it in the budget each year.

Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer, is plagued by corruption and inefficiency. Most years only about half budgeted programmes are implemented.

Major accidents, often involving large-haul trucks, are common in Nigeria, where many of the roads in terrible condition.

Lorries operating on the country's road are often old and poorly maintained and road worthiness checks are scant.

Abandoned trucks, some of them destroyed by heavy collisions, can regularly be seen along major Nigerian motorways.

In March, a petrol tanker caught fire after skidding off the road in southern Port Harcourt, killing six people and injuring several others.

While in April last year, a fuel tanker overturned at an army checkpoint in central Nigeria, sparking an inferno in which some 50 people were killed.

Thursday 12 July 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/nigeria/9395126/Nigeria-fuel-tanker-fire-kills-95.html

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Disaster on 'cursed mountain': Five Britons missing after deadly avalanche in French Alps leaves nine dead

Five British climbers are feared to be among the victims of an avalanche which killed nine in the French Alps this morning.

The massive slide of snow happened around 5am this morning as early morning climbers made their way up Mount Maudit, which is in the Mont Blanc range.

Most of them were roped together on what is considered to be one of the most dangerous ascents in Europe. Rescuers from the Alpine PGHM (mountain rescue service) said the initial estimated death toll was 'at least six'. '

There are around eight others injured and at least two people missing,' added a spokesman, who said that the avalanche had been caused by snow collapsing in July heat. 'We were initially alerted just after dawn by one of the survivors who called us on a mobile phone.' All of the injured have been evacuated by helicopter to nearby hospitals, as police supported by search dogs continued to look for survivors.

There were reported to have been 28 people in the moutaineering group, from several countries including Switzerland, Serbia, Germany, Spain and France.

 Five of the group are now safe back down in the valley, including a guide, but others in the party are still missing.

 It was reported that at a press briefing following the avalanche, claims were made that a lone mountaineer may have set off the avalanche above the group.

The six dead have been confirmed as two Germans, two Swiss, and two Spanish mountaineers, according to Chamonet.com.

The six dead in the avalanche were said to have been in a group of 20 climbers when they were caught in the snow slide At 4345m, Mont Maudit is one of a range of peaks also including Mont Blanc du Tacul which are hugely popular with climbers in the summer.

The first ever ascent of Mont Maudit was by a British party in 1878.

Because of its steep slopes and abundance of thick ice it is often likened to a glass tower block. Despite being popular as a tourist destination with thousands of Britons in both the winter and summer, the Mont Blanc range is one of the most lethal in the world.

It has killed more climbers than any other mountain range, with the annual death toll regularly reaching beyond the 100 mark.

Many lose their lives as they attempt to scale its peaks with insufficient training or supplies. There were no avalanche warnings before the 'deadliest snow slide in recent years', said Eric Fournier, the Mayor of Chamonix.

Mr Fournier said: 'There were no weather reports forecasting an avalanche risk.' Instead huge walls of snow are believed to have been created by high winds overnight, creating so-called 'Wind Slabs' which are hugely dangerous when they collapse.

Today's avalanche is thought to have happened at dawn, as the heavily impacted snow began to warm up and then cascade downwards. In August 2008 eight climbers - three Swiss, one German, and four Austrian - died in a similar accident on the nearby Mont Blanc du Tacul.

Thursday 12 July 2012

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2172418/Mont-Blanc-avalanche-Disaster-cursed-mountain-Five-Britons-missing-deadly-avalanche-French-Alps-leaves-dead.html#ixzz20PCvKCYo

In the event of a catastrophe, San Diego County has a plan for mass burials

Less than half a mile west of the San Diego Convention Center, just past the Manchester Grand Hyatt and next to the Seaport Village sign, lies the marker for a mass grave. Somewhere beneath the soil of La Punta de los Muertos, “Dead Men’s Point,” rest the bodies of an indeterminate number of Spanish sailors who perished from scurvy on a 1782 survey mission commanded by Don Augustín de Echeverria.

Some historians claim the ground holds the bones of another 100 sailors who succumbed to scurvy and dysentery during the first expedition to San Diego, led by explorer Gaspar de Portolà and Father Juniper Serra in 1769.

Mass burials have been part of San Diego history from the beginning, and, if catastrophe were to destroy the city, mass burials would likely mark the city’s end, too. And local government is somewhat ready for it—Section VI of Annex F of the regional “Operational Area Emergency Plan” describes the conditions that would necessitate mass burial, names those who would make the decision and identifies suitable locations for large graves.

In its field manual for first responders, Management of Dead Bodies After Disasters, the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) cautions against jumping too quickly to this measure. Done haphazardly, it could traumatize families and pose significant legal liabilities.

While decaying bodies may be putrid, PAHO says that, contrary to popular belief, the presence of dead bodies doesn’t present a health risk. Instead, mass burials should be used primarily to preserve bodies temporarily for identification purposes in situations where adequate refrigeration isn’t available.

However, in the long term, PAHO acknowledges communal graves may be the only option. But a lot would have to happen for San Diego to get to that point—starting with a “Level 3” event, such as a natural disaster, terrorist attack or nuclear accident (or zombie outbreak), in which the local agencies are overwhelmed with bodies.

Medical examiner 

In a mass-fatality situation, the San Diego County Department of the Medical Examiner would be the lead organization for managing dead bodies, coordinating the identification process and manning family-assistance centers.

Management of Dead Bodies After Disasters 

The medical examiner opened a new building in 2009, which currently has a capacity for 500 bodies. The department also owns a “mobile morgue” that can refrigerate 12 more.

Two morgue trailers each hold 22 bodies. When the medical examiner’s capacity reaches its brink—approximately 556 bodies—the department is authorized to open temporary morgue facilities in locations such as airport hangars and empty warehouses.

According to the emergency plan, these facilities must be secure, equipped with showers and have front-office reception areas.

The medical examiner can call for backup via the federal-level Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team. According to Dr. Amado Alejandro Baez, a national specialist in mortuary services in disaster scenarios, displaying 1,000 bodies would require approximately 2,000 square meters of space.

Baez estimates decomposition may render a body unidentifiable within 48 hours, creating a small window for establishing identity and photographing the bodies. Mass burial According to the regional emergency plan, a mass burial could become necessary when the dead can’t be refrigerated or embalmed, properly processed or released to next of kin and area cemeteries aren’t able to shoulder the extra load.

The decision to invoke the mass-burial protocol would fall to three county officials in particular: Chief Medical Examiner Glenn Wagner, Public Health Officer Wilma J. Wooten and Emergency Services Director Holly Crawford. The California Emergency Management Agency would need to sign off on it, as would local officials, including the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

PAHO’s field manual lays out the specifications for a mass-burial trench. A mass grave should be between 1.5 and 3 meters deep, at least 200 meters from drinking water sources and 2 meters above the water table. Each body should be placed in a body bag or wrapped in a sheet and laid in a single layer with about .4 meters between each body. The bodies should be meticulously documented in a grid for later identification.

Cremation, according to PAHO, should be avoided because it destroys evidence, often results in partially incinerated remains that would have to be buried anyway and requires an enormous amount of fuel (300 kilograms of wood per body, Baez says).

Gravesites 

The first choice for a mass-burial site, of course, would be an existing cemetery. Assuming that’s not an option, the regional plan identifies six alternative types of locations: county landfills, parks and recreational areas, flood-control basins (“weather permit ting”), sides of freeways or river beds, areas beneath power lines and rail yards or along rail lines.

But while geographically feasible, most would be a tough sell politically, says Michael Pallamary, who runs the local land-use consulting and surveying firm Pallamary & Associates. “Contemporary land-use planning has a lot to do with the political implications, so [with a mass grave], you’d either have to face political stigma or the environmental implications,” he says. “You’re not going to bury them in Mission Valley near hotels or golf courses.

The concept of burying in a flood-control channel and having it wash up, that’s hardly an attractive venture.” Pallamary knows a place that meets many of those criteria: the uninhabitable area to the southeast of Mission Bay, near Sea World Drive and Friars Road. It used to be a toxic dump and is near the San Diego River, two freeways and an electricity substation.

The proposed Gregory Canyon Landfill would also be an obvious location, but, based on the county’s list, Pallamary thinks the best options are easements under power lines owned by San Diego Gas & Electric. “I think the power lines would be the only contemporary viable site,” he says. “A lot of these power lines are extraordinarily wide so they could accommodate significant burial sites, and you’re probably never going to use those areas anyway.”

Thursday 12 July 2012

http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-10735-where-will-the-bodie.html

We threw bodies overboard: Eritrean survivor of boat tragedy

ZARZIS, Tunisia (AFP) - Eritrean Abbes Settou, the sole survivor among some 50 migrants who died of hunger and thirst after their inflatable boat ruptured in the Mediterranean, said Wednesday he had survived "by the grace of God."

Speaking to AFP from hospital in Tunisia, Settou, said his fellow passengers, who included other Eritreans and a group of Somalis, "died of hunger, of thirst, of exhaustion.

We threw their bodies overboard." Among the dead, he said were 10 women.

Earlier, the UNHCR in Geneva said Settou, who drank sea water to survive, was spotted clinging to a jerry can and the remains of the boat off the Tunisian coast on Monday night by fishermen who alerted the coast guard.

Settou said there was no fresh water on board and people started to perish within days, including three members of his family, according to the UNHCR.

 The refugee agency quoted him as saying 55 people boarded the boat in the Libyan capital Tripoli in late June, and that more than half were from Eritrea, including himself.

They were unable to call for help because the boat's satellite phone was broken, according to Father Mussie Zerai, an Eritrean priest who spoke to the survivor by telephone on Wednesday. "He said they were at sea for 15 days in total," the priest told AFP. "They had apparently reached Italian waters but they weren't able to call for help because the satellite phone was broken, so the wind pushed them back out into open sea.

"During those 15 days the people on board slowly began dying of hunger and thirst. They were lost, they could not orient themselves. "He is recovering.

In a few days he said he would be moving to a refugee camp." A UNHCR official in Tunisia said Settou would be moved to an apartment in Zarzis, which is 400 kilometres (240 miles) southeast of Tunis, near the Libyan border.

 In his account of the ordeal to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Settou said the boat had punctured and air started to leak out.

UNHCR spokeswoman Sybella Wilkes said Settou is "in a pretty awful state and he's obviously gone through a terrible, terrible experience progressively watching his family members dying." "This is a tragedy," said T. Alexander Aleinikoff, Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees. "I call upon all vessels at sea to be on heightened alert for migrants and refugees needing rescue in the Mediterranean."

The UN agency estimates that 170 people have been declared dead or lost at sea attempting to make the journey from Libya to Europe so far this year.

Greece and Italy are the two main entry points for undocumented immigrants into the European Union. Italy in particular has seen a spike in arrivals over the past year following the Arab Spring revolts in North Africa.

Malta is also a frequent landing point but is increasingly being spurned by immigrants worried about the relatively lengthy registration process for new arrivals, the UNHCR said. "With that knowledge, people are going on to Italy," said Wilkes. "We didn't see this at all last year, that boats are finding their way to Malta and then refusing to go in."

So far in 2012, more than 1,300 people have made the sea journey to Italy from Libya, the UNHCR said. The busiest period for crossings is from May to September, when the Mediterranean Sea is at its calmest, the agency added.

Thursday 12 July 2012

 http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/14205800/54-migrants-die-of-thirst-in-boat-tragedy-off-tunisia/