Seven dead in Italy bus accident

Seven people have been killed after a coach came off a flyover and plunged down a 98ft slope, according to police.

Some of the dead were children, according to the daily newspaper Corriere della Sera, which also reported that the driver had died.

Dozens were also injured in the crash at Avellino, in Southern Italy.

A police spokesman said: "I cannot yet confirm the number of victims, we are still pulling people from the vehicle. Our priority now is to free the wounded.

According to some reports, the coach was thought to be carrying pilgrims returning from a trip.

Rescue workers at the scene said the bus had hit several cars before coming off the road and added that some of the passengers could have been flung from the vehicle as it fell.

The Naples-Bari highway has been closed to traffic.

Sunday 28 July 2013

http://news.sky.com/story/1121510/seven-dead-in-italian-bus-plunge

Spain train crash: New death brings toll to 79

The death toll rose to at least 79 on Sunday morning when another person died, a representative for the regional health department said.

Authorities said forensic experts have identified the last three bodies of the 78 people already confirmed killed when the intercity train derailed and smashed into a concrete wall.

They did not reveal the victims' names but said their families had been informed.

As they are identified, most of the bodies are being returned to their families, the regional justice department said. DNA testing will be conducted on some remains to establish their identity, it said.

Police forensic experts said at a news conference Saturday there are 37 body parts that must still be tested to see whether they belong to bodies that have already been identified, or to others not yet known.

Local newspaper La Voz de Galicia said that a funeral service for the victims will take place Monday evening in the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.

At least 130 people were taken to hospital after the crash. About 70 people who were injured in the crash remained in the hospital Sunday, about 22 of them listed in serious condition, the official said.

Five US citizens and one Briton were among the injured and one American was among the dead.

The train crash is the worst Spain has experienced since a three-train accident in a tunnel in the northern Leon province in 1944.

Due to heavy censorship at the time, the exact death toll for the Torre del Bierzo disaster has never been established.

The official figure was given as 78 dead, but it is thought that as many as 250 could have been killed.

Sunday 28 July 2013

http://news.sky.com/story/1121409/spain-train-crash-new-death-brings-toll-to-79

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/28/world/europe/spain-train-crash/index.html

Search for missing Lac-Mégantic bodies resumes Monday

Searchers will resume efforts Monday morning to find the bodies of the last five victims of the Lac-Mégantic train tragedy, the Sûreté du Québec said.

A total of 42 victims have been found since the July 6 oil-train derailment and the intense fires that followed.

The SQ said 34 of the bodies have been identified.

As of Sunday, the coroner’s office had released the names and ages of 31 victims.

A total of 47 people are believed to have perished.

SQ Insp. Michel Forget had said Friday that hope remains that the bodies of all five persons not accounted for will be recovered.

The search will resume at two locations, Forget said, notably where oil-tanker cars had been moved by investigators.

Very few tanker railcars remain to be displaced, according to Forget.

Sunday 28 July 2013

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Search+missing+M%C3%A9gantic+bodies+resumes+Monday/8718313/story.html

31 migrants drown en route to Lampedusa

Thirty-one people are believed to have died while trying to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa, the latest tragedy to occur on the perilous sea crossing between north Africa and Europe.

Survivors of the journey from Libya reportedly told authorities that the vessel in which they were travelling capsized on Friday evening, and more than half of its 53 passengers drowned. They said nine of the dead were women, the Ansa news agency reported.

The Italian coastguard has rescued 22 migrants from the boat which sank off the coast of Libya, ANSA news agency said on Sunday.

Pictures on Italian television showed the wreck of a motorised rubber dinghy. The 22 people rescued were from a variety of west African countries including Nigeria, Benin, Gambia and Senegal.

Rescuers were still searching for any survivors

When Pope Francis visited Lampedusa this month, the UN said the death toll for the crossing this year was 40.

The survivors of Friday night were a fraction of the more than 470 migrants who arrived on Italian shores in the space of 24 hours. The reception centre in Lampedusa is reported to be full to bursting following a surge in the number of arrivals.

A week ago Save the Children raised the alarm about the plight of unaccompanied minors in the centre, where they said dozens of child migrants were sleeping on the bare earth outside due the recent influx.

The traffickers who charge money for the crossings tend to take advantage of calm seas, as in recent days, to make the voyage.

It was a tragedy along the lines of Friday night's drowning that Francis said had spurred him on to devote his first trip outside Rome to Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost point. During the visit on 8 July, he said news of a recent incident had repeatedly come back to him "like a thorn in the heart".

The Argentinian pontiff, whose grandparents emigrated from northern Italy to Latin America, asked for "forgiveness for those who by their decisions at the global level have created situations that lead to these tragedies", and cast a wreath of flowers on to the water in commemoration of those who had died.

North Africa is a launch-point for migration to southern Europe, with Italy the main destination. Thousands of people have been killed attempting the dangerous crossing in overcrowded and frequently unsafe boats.

Sunday 28 July 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/28/migrants-drown-lampedusa-crossing

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/28/us-italy-immigrants-idUSBRE96R06M20130728

Spain police identify all 78 victims of train crash

Spanish police have finished identifying all 78 victims of the nation's deadliest train crash in decades, a court in the northern region of Galicia where the accident happened said Saturday.

"The three victims of the accident that still needed to be identified have been officiallly identified. One of them is a French man," the High Court of Galicia which is leading the investigation into the accident said in a statement.

"At the moment there is no family waiting for identification," it added.

The confirmation that a Frenchman was among the dead brings to eight the total number of foreigners killed in Wednesday's accident near the city of Santiago de Compostela.

A US citizen, an Algerian, a Mexican, a Brazilian, a Venezuelan, an Italian and a national of the Dominican Republic also died in the crash.

Seventy-one people remained in hospital, including 28 adults and three children who were in critical condition, regional health authorities said.

Police used DNA samples, dental records and fingerprints to identify the bodies.

Galicia police chief Jaime Iglesias said Friday that police were working with "mangled bodies", some of which where hard to recognise because of the injuries sustained.

Sunday 28 July 2013

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130727/spain-police-identify-all-78-victims-train-crash