Train crash near Paris: 'at least seven dead'

The inter-city train crashed around 5.15pm local time on Friday in the suburb of Brétigny-sur-Orge, around 16 miles south of the French capital. It was heading for the city of Limoges in west-central France.

Pictures from the scene showed that the train had ploughed into the commuter station at Brétigny, with its carriages partly demolishing a platform.

While a number of those injured were in the coaches, others were hurt standing on the platform struck by the train. Some injured are being treated in a field hospital within the station. The seriously injured, who have been either crushed or electrocuted, or seriously burned, have been sent to Paris hospitals.

“The train arrived at the station at high speed,” said one police source. “It split in two for an unknown reason. Part of the train continued to roll while the other was left on its side on the platform.”

Guillaume Pepy, head of national rail operator SNCF, said that six coaches had derailed - the third, fourth came off the rails and the following four followed suit. The train is understood to have been carrying around 385 passengers.

“Some cars simply derailed, others are leaning, others fell over,” he said.

The train was travelling between 75-87mph (120-140kmh)

Manuel Valls, the French interior minister, said: “The death toll is evolving constantly at this point and unfortunately it will probably rise. At this stage there are seven people dead, several dozen wounded and some of them are serious.”

Francois Hollande, the French president, was on his way to the site.

Eyewitnesses to the crash spoke of a chaotic aftermath as passengers spilled out, with children running around trying to find their parents.

One passenger, who identified himself only as “Laurent”, told French radio: “I was in the first coach just behind the locomotive. We got a big, big shock and all held onto our seats. It lasted around 10 to 15 seconds. There were big jolts and smoke everywhere.

“It seems there were no injured people in the first three coaches, but I spoke to a man who told me he had a dead person next to him. Lots of people were bleeding near me, and lots of people crying.”

Englishman Graham Hope suffered a head injury, saying: “The train just started to rock up and down like a bucking bronco and the next thing we hit the station itself. The train bounced up and down dramatically for several seconds.” He said the train “split in two” and then “buckled”. “When I looked, there was a huge plume of smoke billowing above the rails. Bazgua El Mehdi, 19, was on a nearby train at Bretigny station at the time of the crash.

“I heard a loud noise. A cloud of sand covered everything,” he said. “I saw a man barely conscious, with an open head wound. Many had suffered cuts. Lots of train passengers were stuck. A SNCF agent told me that a man was cut in two.”

The crash happened as many French were heading away from Paris for a holiday weekend - this Sunday is Bastille Day. The train served a regional service that travels more slowly than France’s TGV express trains. It apparently veered off the track as it pulled into the station at the town of Bretigny, although eyewitnesses claimed it was travelling unusually fast as it approached.

One passenger told France’s BFM television that the train was not meant to stop at Bretigny. “Most of the people who suffered minor injuries have been taken care of,” said Michel Pouzol, a local official. “We are going to have to empty the carriages completely to see if there are victims or not.”

All trains from Paris’ Gare d’Austerlitz station were suspended after the accident.

Friday 12 July 2013

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10176769/Train-crash-near-Paris-at-least-seven-dead.html

Secunderabad hotel collapse: Police to conduct DNA profiling of unclaimed bodies

The city police have decided to conduct DNA fingerprinting profiling of three unidentified bodies which were retrieved from under the debris of City Light Hotel but remained unclaimed at the Gandhi Hospital mortuary.

Out of the four unclaimed bodies, one has been identified as that of Mohammed Aslam (35) of Rasoolpura on Thursday.

“We will wait till Friday for identifying the remaining three bodies. If no one claims them, we will conduct DNA fingerprinting profiling of the bodies and send for conduct of last rites,” said Mahankali Additional Inspector A. Srinivas Rao.

This initiative would also help officials in sanctioning ex-gratia to the claimants if they identify the victims in future.

The expertise of Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) scientists in identifying bodies through DNA fingerprinting would be used.

Usually, the police wait for 48 hours for unclaimed bodies preserved in the deep freezer at the isolation ward in the Gandhi Hospital mortuary to facilitate people identify them and later hand them over to municipal workers.

In case of the hotel incident, the bodies have been lying in the morgue for the past 72 hours. “It’s not advisable to preserve bodies for such a long duration,” Mr. Rao said.

Aslam was identified by his family through photographs published in the newspapers. The victim used to work as a daily wage labourer.

As there was urgent need of manpower for attending to ‘Haleem’ preparation works at the hotel, the management had appointed him on a daily wage of Rs. 300. He is survived by two wives each having two children.

With the information collected from injured hotel workers and survivors, the police identified another body as that of Mogli from Kolkata but none came forward to claim his body.

“We will try to collect more information about Mogli to trace his family members,” added the Additional Inspector.

Friday 12 July 2013

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/police-to-conduct-dna-profiling-of-unclaimed-bodies/article4905935.ece

30 killed, over 100 missing in rains and landslides in China

At least 30 people were killed and over 100 went missing in China when rain-triggered natural disasters wreaked havoc across the country since Sunday, even as authorities on Thursday issued a national early disaster warning for the arrival of Typhoon Soulik.

Floods and landslides caused by the downpours have affected about 3.73 million people in 17 provincial-level regions, as well as forced the relocation of 212,000 residents, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said today.

Thirty people were killed and over 100 others remain missing in heavy floods and landslides triggered by rain storms since Sunday, the official media reported here.

The rainstorms also destroyed more than 8,400 houses and damaged another 113,000, causing direct economic losses of 8.56 billion yuan (around USD 1.4 billion), according to the ministry.

Meanwhile, the death toll from a landslide in southwest China's Sichuan Province has risen to 18 after six more bodies were retrieved, local authorities said.

So far the rescuers had found 18 bodies from the landslide that took place yesterday in the village of Sanxi in Dujiangyan City, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. An initial investigation showed that 107 people across the city were missing or cannot immediately be reached.

Local authorities are continuing to verify the exact number of those missing. Search and rescue work is underway. The landslide, which had buried 11 homes in the region, is believed to have been triggered by severe rainstorms since Monday evening.

The affected area of the landslide is two-Km long, with about 1.5 million cubic meters of mud, rock and debris, said Qiao Jianping, a researcher with the Institute of Mountain and Environment under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The National Commission for Disaster Reduction and the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued the alert at 3 pm, as Soulik is expected to approach Taiwan's east coast early Friday and affect waters off the mainland's coastal provinces.

The alert came as the National Meteorological Center (NMC) continues to maintain its orange alert for Typhoon Soulik, the second-highest level on its four-tier typhoon warning system.

Friday 12 July 2013

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130711/news-world/article/30-killed-over-100-missing-rains-and-landslides-china

24 bodies found in Canada train wreck with 26 still missing

Four more bodied have been found in the wreckage of the town center in a small town in Quebec, Canada following a fuel-carrying train crash, bringing to 24 the number of people confirmed dead.

Another 26 people remained missing and believed killed in the tiny Lac-Magantic town as of Thursday evening, in what has been described as Canada’s worst railway disaster since 1864 which would bring the total number of dead to 50.

The development comes as provincial and municipal leaders in Quebec fiercely criticized executives of the company that operated the driverless freight train for their slow response to the deadly disaster.

Quebec Premier Pauline Marois said the behavior of the company, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic (MMA) and its chairman, Ed Burkhardt, had been “absolutely deplorable.”

Mayor of Lac-Magantic, Colette Roy-Laroche, further stated that the company executives should have visited the disaster scene much sooner.

“I am truly shocked that he didn’t get in touch with me as quickly as possible,” Roy-Laroche said of Burkhardt, adding that she did not meet with him when he toured her town on Wednesday.

The MMA train was carrying 72 tanker cars of crude oil when it smashed into Lac-Megantic early on Saturday and exploded in a wall of fire that flattened dozens of buildings, including a crowded bar.

The freight train was reportedly part of a huge expansion in rail shipments of crude oil across North America as oil output has drastically climbed in Canada and the US state of North Dakota and oil pipelines have run out of space.

Most of the 2,000 evacuated residents of Lac-Magantic have been allowed to return home, but the critically devastated "red zone" at the town’s center is regarded as ‘a crime zone’ and is closed to everyone but investigators.

Quebec police, meanwhile, have gone over half the roped-off area, said spokesman Michel Forget, but the most difficult task was yet to come due to the remaining oil and gas, as well as the tanker cars that had to be removed.

He added that some areas would likely take days and even weeks to reach, noting that the police would probably find more of the missing bodies.

The Canadian government said it would wait for the end of the investigations before taking decisions on rail safety.

Friday 12 July 2013

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/07/12/313440/canada-train-wreck-toll-reaches-24/