Uttarakhand: Machines to dig out hundreds of buried bodies

A month has passed since Uttarakhand was swamped by the rain-flood tragedy, and hundreds of bodies and animal carcasses still lie buried under several feet of silt and rubble in the Kedarnath Valley. The authorities will now deploy machines to dig out these remnants.

State Health Minister Surinder Singh Negi told IANS Monday that the state government will use special machines to dig out the bodies buried deep in the debris in the flood-affected areas of the state.

"The machines have already been air-dropped in the Munsiyari area Sunday and will soon be dropped in the Kedar Valley as well," he said. Munsiyari is over 100 km from Kedarnath.

Negi said they have removed almost all the bodies which were lying strewn around on the surface in the aftermath of the floods, but the bodies buried in the silt are difficult to be removed.

"Since it is impossible to dig out all the bodies manually, we are using machines," he said, adding that two machines are being sent to the Kedar Valley.

Negi said inclement weather and a damaged helipad have hindered and delayed the process of airlifting the machines earlier.

"The issue we are facing in Kedarnath is bad weather. One other factor is the helipad is badly damaged and not equipped for landings as of now," the minister said.

To prevent the putrefying bodies from causing infection and spreading disease, the authorities have scattered tonnes of bleaching power in the flood-hit areas and also sprayed disinfectants, including from helicopters.

"We have also provided lakhs of fluoride tablets to people to make their drinking water safe," he said.

Negi said there have been no health issues in the affected areas so far.

"We have made efforts to ensure that there are no outbreaks of diseases," he said, adding that a team of 80 doctors from the central government is camping in the state.

The state government Monday declared 5,748 people are still missing, and that it would start disbursing compensation to the next of kin. But the government clarified that search for the missing would continue.

Monday 15 July 2013

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1861451/report-machines-to-dig-out-hundreds-of-buried-bodies-a-month-since-the-uttarakhand-disaster

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Sichuan: Landslide victims identified by DNA

Ten victims of a landslide in Dujiangyan, Sichuan province, last Wednesday have been identified by DNA comparisons. "Medics collected 162 DNA samples from people who are looking for missing relatives and 37 DNA samples from landslide victims," said Dujiangyan's executive vice-mayor Chen Yangjie.

The landslide occurred on Wednesday in Sanxi, a village in Zhongxing, Dujiangyan, after the most severe rainstorm Dujiangyan has experienced since it began keeping meteorological records in 1954. Eight rural resorts were buried. Forty-three people perished and another 118 are missing.

"As all the bodies recovered from the site are mixed with mud and sand, it is impossible to identify them without DNA tests," said Yang Weiping, a rescuer on the scene.

Search operations have proved extremely difficult in the mountainous village as the affected area is 2 kilometers long, and contains about 1.5 million cubic meters of mud, rock and debris.

"Very often, rescuers have to use their own hands rather than excavators to dig out victims in order not to disfigure them. As roads leading to the village have been ruined, rescuers have to set up temporary bridges with ropes to transport boards on which victims' bodies lie," Yang said.

According to the Sichuan provincial department of civil affairs, the stormy weather, which started in Sichuan on July 7, has affected 15 cities and autonomous prefectures with a combined population of nearly 2.5 million.

In Wenchuan, a county ravaged by a magnitude 8.0 earthquake in 2008, all townships have been affected by the storm.

"Rainstorm-triggered floods and landslides have caused 14 deaths and 15 people are missing," said county Party chief Qing Lidong. The Wolong Nature Reserve in Wenchuan has experienced the most damage since the 2008 earthquake, in which nearly 70,000 died.

"Rainstorms have caused 38 landslides. More than 6,000 people have been affected. Roads, agriculture, communications, power and water supply facilities as well as many infrastructure facilities rebuilt after the earthquake have been damaged. Economic losses total 140 million yuan ($22.8 million)," said Zhang Hemin, chief of the administrative bureau of the Wolong Nature Reserve.

In the Wenchuan earthquake, one of the reserve's pandas died, one went missing and 13 panda dens were damaged. After the earthquake, many pandas from Wolong were transferred to the reserve's Bifengxia base in Ya'an, Sichuan. Wolong has only 10 pandas being trained for reintroduction to the wild.

"All the pandas in Wolong are safe. But the road leading to Yingxiu town in Wenchuan from Wolong has been damaged. It hinders the transportation of production materials and daily necessities to the reserve where more than 5,000 people live," Zhang said.

The pandas at the Bifengxia base are 260 km from Wolong and also safe as the mountainous base is 1,100 to 1,200 meters above sea level and the rainstorm had a minimal impact on it.

Monday 15 July 2013

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-07/15/content_16775335.htm

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Canada rail disaster official death toll hits 35

Two more bodies were found on Sunday in downtown Lac-Megantic, the Quebec town devastated when an oil tanker train derailed and exploded, bringing the body count to 35 of the 50 presumed dead.

Two damaged and unstable buildings in the disaster zone were demolished on Sunday afternoon, police added, to allow searchers safer access to the area as the search for corpses continues.

"Temperatures are very high, which slows down the operations. Three firefighters were lightly wounded on Sunday, but they were cared for on the scene," said provincial police spokesman Michel Forget.

The train, made up of 72 tanker cars loaded with crude oil, derailed in the early hours of July 6 in Lac-Megantic, a town of 6,000 near the Canada-US border. Waves of fire gutted several streets in the town centre. The disaster appears to have been caused by an engineer's failure to properly set the hand brake on the runaway, the railway's chairman said this week.

Monday 15 July 2013

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/world/story/canada-rail-disaster-official-death-toll-hits-35-20130715

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Uttarakhand floods: When accounting for the missing is not such a disaster

The 15 officials at the missing persons cell, set up on June 27 in the wake of the disaster that swept through Uttarakhand, knew that their work was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack.

With just five phone lines, they were entrusted with the task of taking down complaints 24X7 of those missing in the rain-ravaged state and feeding them into the National Informatics Centre’s data bank. To ensure a watertight system, the cell, set up under the charge of Ajay Kumar Pradyot, secretary of youth affairs ministry, roped in several agencies, like the Integrated Child Development Services that has presence across the country.

It even referred to data from FIRs, Google Person Finder — an open source web application that provides a registry and message board for survivors, family, and loved ones affected by a natural disaster to post and search for information about each other’s status and whereabouts — Facebook, Twitter, television channels, the army as well as the Indo-Tibetan Police Force.

Soon enough, though, the team hit a wall. With information coming in by the hour from various sources, duplications began creeping in: the figure of those reported missing crossed 25,000 by July 5. This made it nearly impossible to cross-check names manually or even through established computing procedures.

That’s when software giant IBM lent a helping hand. It helped the cell programme a spreadsheet application that collated data under several parameters, like name, father’s name, spouse’s name, address, photograph and cellphone number. All agencies involved in the work were then asked to fill as much data as possible under each category.

“The idea was to quickly get figures from all places. The basic strategy was to come up with a list of persons actually missing, untraceable or dead so that beneficiaries could get their compensation. But with tonnes of data pouring in, this became difficult. Thankfully, IBM volunteered to help deduplicate,” says Pradyot.

IBM sent a team of six professionals to the cell from its various centres in India. To make the task easier, the cell gave each reported missing person a unique identity (eg UP/MC/0001) and then fed in all possible parameters in each.

The data compression technique has been a huge success. Together, the teams have helped narrow down the figure of missing persons to 5,000-6,000. The cell also opened a call centre and roped in the 108 (emergency) service to cross-check identities. So far, it has made over 10,000 calls.

Leaving nothing to chance, it simultaneously asked all mobile service providers to provide call data records of people who had made calls or sent SMSes from Uttarakhand from June 14 to June 21. Besides, it asked them to provide information of cellphones in Uttarakhand that were disconnected between June 16 and June 23.

“This mammoth exercise was, perhaps, the first in the world. The idea was to get numbers of phones that had died, establish identities of their subscribers and then connect with their families or friends to check if they had reached home.

That was difficult too since in Uttarakhand, the telecom service provider changes as one moves from one circle to another even in a day. We hope to finish the task by July 15,” assures Pradyot.

The Uttarakhand government has asked all states to furnish a list of people who went missing in the state during the deluge. Following this, the list of those presumed to be dead will be handed over to a special committee looking into compensation, which is expected to be over Rs300 crore.

Sunday 14 July 2013

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1860799/report-uttarakhand-floods-when-accounting-for-the-missing-is-not-such-a-disaster

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11 Somalis drown in smuggler's boat tragedy

Eleven Somalis drowned and another 34 are missing after a smugglers' boat headed for Yemen capsized in the Gulf of Aden earlier this week, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.

A total of 58 passengers were on board the vessel which set sail on Saturday before capsizing in rough seas near Elayo on Wednesday. Survivors told how the three smugglers crewmen forced 22 people overboard when the boat's engine failed soon after departure, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.

"UNHCR is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life," the agency said in a statement.

An investigation is under way, it added. "We hope that the perpetrators will be brought to justice."

The bodies of the 11 dead were recovered on beaches around Ceelaayo village, about 30 kilometres west of the Somali port town of Bossaso.

Locals found 13 survivors, including two women and a teenage boy and girl, most of whom were treated for skin burns caused by fuel inside the boat.

Last year a record 103,000 refugees, asylum seekers and migrants crossed the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea from the Horn of Africa — mainly Somalis and Ethiopians. A reported 130 drowned.

Sunday 14 July 2013

http://somalilandsun.com/index.php/community/3327--11-somalis-drown-in-boat-tragedy

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Dead identified in Russian bus tragedy

Russian authorities say the bodies of 18 people who were killed in a horrific road accident in Moscow have been identified by their relatives.

The victims were killed, and another 20 injured, when a gravel truck collided with a commuter bus on July 13 near the village of Oznobishino close to Podolsk on the outskirts of Moscow.

Police have also opened a criminal investigation into the accident, which occurred when the gravel truck turned onto a main road and collided with the bus.

Sunday 14 July 2013

http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-bus-tragedy-dead-identified/25045898.html

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Death toll of floods in Sichuan province rises to 43, 150 missing

Floods triggered by some of the heaviest rain in decades have cut off access to several villages in central Sichuan province since early yesterday morning, trapping hundreds of people.

More than 40 people have been killed and 150 more are missing in Sichuan as a result of the floods and landslides, Xinhua reported. The southwestern province is still reeling from a major earthquake in April. Two million residents were affected as of last night, CCTV reported. Most of the deaths occurred in a landslide in Dujiangyan , where 25 more bodies were found, taking the death toll there to 43, Xinhua reported.

Downpours were blamed for a mudslide that left 100 tourists stranded in Gansu province's Wenxian county on Friday night. Another landslide killed two in Yanan city, bringing the death toll from recent storms in Shaanxi province to 23.

In Sichuan, rain and floods cut off electricity and phone lines, reported China News Service, while roads were impassable in parts of Yaan county.

At least four bridges and 13 mining sites were severely damaged across the county. More than 400 villagers were still stranded in isolated Heping village.

Rescuers did manage to reach 170 residents trapped in Mao county's Caolu village, where they had been stuck for two days, the Sichuan Daily reported.

Sunday 14 July 2013

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1282133/floods-sichuan-province-leave-40-dead-150-missing

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Five more bodies found in Lac-Megantic, raising death toll to 33

Five more bodies were recovered in Lac-Megantic, Que. Saturday as crews continue to search the area devastated by last week’s deadly train derailment.

The official death toll in the town now stands at 33, while 17 others remain missing.

Nine of the 33 dead have been identified, and authorities are expected to release some of their names soon.

“The conditions are absolutely awful, and they’ll continue to be,” Michel Forget, an investigator with Quebec’s provincial police, told reporters during a news conference on Saturday.

Forget said search crews are required to wear specialized equipment due to the toxic fumes at the crash site. He said the recovery effort is expected to continue for weeks.

Earlier Saturday, the community honoured the victims with a moment of silence.

Under clear skies, Lac-Megantic residents held a full minute of silence as the bells of the Ste-Agnes church rang 50 times at noon. That number was intended to honour the 50 individuals whose bodies have been recovered and the missing who are, by now, presumed dead.

As the bells tolled, residents gathered on the church steps with their heads bowed in silence. Some held photos of loved ones and quietly wiped away tears.

Search crews also suspended their efforts for the moment of silence.

“All worked stopped and it was a very emotional moment for them,” Forget said.

Residents of the small community of around 6,000 said the tribute comes at a critical time.

"Think of the people who are enduring this, who are in mourning," Jean-Denis Martel said, as he sat in the church on Friday. “It's good to take a moment of silence, for those with loved ones. It's not easy. It hurts bad." It’s been one week since the devastating train derailment.

On July 6, just after 1 a.m., a Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Inc. train came barrelling into Lac-Megantic, skipped the tracks and exploded into a series of massive fire balls. The 72-car train was carrying crude oil destined for New Brunswick.

The train had been parked in the nearby town of Nantes, about 12 kilometres away. It was left unattended, with the engineer at a hotel for the night.

Throughout the week, as the death toll rose each day, residents who were still missing loved ones came to the heart-breaking realization that their missing family members were likely dead.

A candlelight vigil was held Friday night on the steps of the Lac-Megantic church, despite town officials asking residents to stay home.

With much of the town’s downtown core still considered a crime scene, Quebec provincial police said they couldn’t spare the resources to monitor a large crowd or vigil.

Still, small groups of families and friends came together to mourn and find comfort in their community. "In one way or another, we're all affected," Bianca Fillion said.

West of Lac-Megantic in Montreal, a group mounted a small shrine in front of the Notre-Dame Basilica to show their support for the town.

"Solidarity,” resident Richard Lafontaine said. "We're participating in a movement of solidarity for the region and especially the town."

Vigils were also held in communities throughout Quebec including Sherbrooke, Quebec City, Trois Rivieres and Gatineau. Winnipeg also held a vigil for Lac-Megantic.

Next week, three benefit concerts are scheduled for Montreal, Quebec City and St-Georges-de-Beauce.

The past week has also seen anger building in the town as residents struggle to understand how the disaster could have happened. Quebec provincial police have cordoned off a large part of the town’s downtown as they continue their investigation. The federal Transportation Safety Board has said its own probe into the derailment will likely take months.

"This may well be the most devastating rail accident in Canadian history," board chairwoman Wendy Tadros told a news conference recently.

Sunday 14 July 2013 http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/five-more-bodies-found-in-lac-megantic-raising-death-toll-to-33-1.1365668

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18 dead as passenger bus collides with truck in Moscow

More than a dozen people were killed, including a child, and over 60 injured as a truck crashed into the side of a passenger bus in Moscow, tearing the back half off.

Russia’s Emergencies Ministry has confirmed the deaths of 18 people, with the youngest victim being a six-year old girl. Initially Moscow medical authorities reported 14 deaths, but later four of the injured died in hospitals.

At least 25 others have been taken to hospital with nearly a dozen of them in a critical condition. Two of those hospitalized include children between eight and 10 years old.

A truck carrying roadbase crushed into bus N1033, which was carrying 60 people.

Earlier reports said there were 41 passengers on board, but later the number was corrected and confirmed by Moscow's acting deputy mayor, Pyotr Birukov.

By 5:15pm local time (13:15 GMT) some of the bodies have been recovered from the mangled bus.

At least five of them have been identified, including the little girl and her 38-year-old mother. The main difficulty for rescuers is that some of the victims appeared to be buried under layers of roadbase, which spilled from the truck.

Dashcam video of the crash shows that the truck driver deliberately overtook front cars that were waiting at the intersection with the main road. He left two cars behind him, and kept moving, hitting the bus at speed. One witness told RIA Novosti that the driver was moving on the wrong side of the road.

"The KAMAZ [truck] was moving at high speed on a separate lane on his road while at the time the bus was just leaving the stop where it took on passengers. The KAMAZ could have avoided the collision, but tried to pass the bus, hit it and almost cut its back off,” one witness told RIA Novosti.

The truck driver was thrown out of the vehicle and is seen looking at the accident in shock.

Thirty ambulance crews were dispatched to the site in southern Moscow.

Helicopters with medics on board also attended the crash scene. Four helicopters were used to transport the injured.

The driver has survived the collision and was identified as a 46-year-old Armenian citizen, who was fined seven times this year alone for traffic violations, Moscow police stated. The driver is currently in a hospital being questioned by police.

The accident happened in an area referred to as “new” Moscow, as the southern suburb was recently included within the city’s borders.

Monday has been declared day of mourning in Moscow.

Saturday 13 July 2013

http://rt.com/news/bus-children-dead-moscow-050/

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Disaster-prone salt range: Ten perish in motorway bus crash

Another deadly bus accident in the salt range near Kallar Kahar occurred on Friday, when a passenger bus overturned on the motorway, killing at least ten and injuring fifteen others.

The Faisalabad-bound bus left Rawalpindi with 50 passengers onboard. While going down a steep slope, the brakes failed and the bus hit the median and jumped the divider, flipped over and slid onto the northbound section of the highway, pinning many passengers under its weight.

The police said that six people including the driver, a woman and a child, died on the spot, while six were critically injured and were rescued by cutting through the vehicle’s frame.

The motorway authorities’ initial inquiry attributed the accident to driver error leading to brake failure.

“He lost control over the bus after he put it in neutral on entering the salt range. When he applied the brakes, they failed to respond,” said a National Highways and Motorway Police (NHMP) officer.

Most of the passengers belonged to Faisalabad and Jhang districts. NHMP emergency vehicles were the first to arrive at the scene. However, witnesses said that even before their arrival, passersby started shifting the injured to the nearby Chakwal District Headquarters Hospital in their private vehicles.

The police said at least two bodies were unidentifiable and that four of the critically wounded were later shifted to Rawalpindi District Headquarters Hospital. At least one of the sixteen who were shifted to Chakwal Hospital died in hospital.

Police said the accident occurred near the entrance to the salt range and not the narrow turn referred to as “229” by the police. The 229 bend is a few metres ahead of the salt range entrance and has seen more than 200 accidents occur there, including a number of deadly ones.

The deadliest accident occurred two years ago, when a Faisalabad-bound bus overloaded with students overturned in similar fashion, killing more than thirty students and injuring several others. The Supreme Court also took note of the accident.

“The fitness certificate of this bus was valid for another year, so there was nothing mechanically wrong with the vehicle,” NHMP officials told The Express Tribune.

The police have taken multiple preventive measures in the salt range, including the placement of speed-breakers on narrow turns, to control the rising number of accidents in the area, but these measures have failed to serve as a significantly effective deterrent.

NHMP officials also record videos on all passenger busses when they enter the motorway in order to keep tabs on overloading. The police identified six of the bodies in Chakwal District Headquarters Hospital as Mahnoor Shakeel from Sumandri, Faisalabad, Umar Ali Shah of Malhu Mor, Jhang, Iqra Shafqat, Naeem Hayat and Shahbaz Shaaban, all from Cheecha Watani, Sahiwal and the driver Muhammad Iqbal.

At least two of the bodies in Chakwal could not be identified due to the severity of their injuries.

Saturday 13 July 2013

http://tribune.com.pk/story/576316/disaster-prone-salt-range-ten-perish-in-motorway-bus-crash/

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Death toll in Canada rail crash up to 28

THE death toll from the Lac-Megantic train disaster has risen to 28 after four more bodies were pulled from rubble of the devastated Canadian town.

A further 22 people remain missing and presumed dead after the rail disaster, Quebec police said on Friday, as accident investigators continue to comb through the destruction.

A spokesman from the coroner's office added they have now identified eight of the 28 bodies, up from just one earlier.

Part of a train made up of 72 tank cars loaded with crude oil derailed in the early hours of Saturday, July 6, in Lac-Megantic, near the Quebec-Maine border, igniting a huge explosion that laid waste to the centre of the lakeside town.

Police working in the disaster zone have had "a great deal of difficulty" because of strong petrol fumes, Quebec provincial police spokesman Michel Forget said.

"These are the places where there is a much denser concentration of oil. So, when we lift pieces, these fumes" reach insupportable limits for the investigators, he said.

"We have had therefore to review our strategy and deploy to other spots," Forget explained, emphasising that "the ground is contaminated with oil in some places."

Police are examining "different measures to ensure ventilation to make sure the work can continue" as efficiently as possible.

The approximately 200 police on the scene, including 60 investigators, will be reinforced in the coming days by crime scene technicians from Montreal and Quebec City "in order to accelerate the work," he added.

Earlier, investigation official Jean Laporte said the Lac-Megantic crash was "extremely likely the most devastating rail accident in the history of Canada."

The US transportation safety agency would also work with the investigators, Laporte added.

Saturday 13 July 2013

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/death-toll-in-canada-rail-crash-up-to-28/story-fni0xqll-1226678831618

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France train crash: Looters 'picking through the wreckage' of intercity express

A faulty rail joint is being blamed for yesterday's French train crash that left six people dead and 30 injured.

As rescue workers continued to search the wreckage of the intercity express for survivors, rail officials pinpointed a loose connector as the most likely cause of the crash.

It came as police reported looters trying to steal from the bodies of victims who were electrocuted or crushed to death.

The packed train came off the rails and hit a platform, overturning carriages, as it travelled through Bretigny-sur-Orge station in central France.

Officials said it was impossible to know if there were more people trapped until the overturned carriages were lifted.

“The fear is that victims may still be trapped in the wreckage,” said a French railways manager at the scene.

A police spokesman described groups of locals “picking through the wreckage” last night.

“It appeared at first they were trying to help, but it soon became clear that they were taking personal property away.

"When police approached they threw stones before running away.”

The crash site, about 16 miles from the centre of Paris, is surrounded by wasteland used as a temporary camp for homeless people.

The six carriage train, which left Paris with 385 passengers on board, crashed about 20 minutes into a scheduled three hour journey to Limoges.

It was travelling at 85mph, below the 93mph speed limit.

Accident investigators were yesterday focussing attention on a switching system which guides trains one track to another.

They found one joint in the switch had disconnected from its normal position.

The steel plate connector had worked its way loose and become detached at points about 200 yards from the station, causing the train to derail.

The investigation is expected to focus on how the piece of metal had become detached.

Checks on 50,000 similar components across the French rail network will be now be carried out.

Pierre Izard, an official with the national rial company SNCF, told a press conference: “It moved into the centre of the switch and in this position it prevented the normal passege of the train’s wheels and it may have caused the derailment.”

He said investigators were looking into how this happened when another train had travelled over the same spot only 30 minutes before.

In addition, they were trying to work out why the third carriage was the first to derail.

Transport Minister Frederic Cuvillier yesterday ruled out human error for the disaster.

He said: “Fortunately, the driver of the locomotive had absolutely extraordinary reflexes in that he sounded the alarm immediately, preventing a collision with another train coming in the opposite direction and which would have hit the derailing carriages within seconds. So it is not a human problem.”

Passengers and officials in train stations across France today held a minute’s silence at noon to commemorate those who died.

The accident happened on one of the busiest weekends with the country celebrating Bastille Day tomorrow.

British student Marvin Khareem Wone was among those on another train when the train ploughed into the station.

He said: “The train went off the railway - it just went on the platform and kind of flew in the air for a second and went upside down.

“The first and the second coach were completely destroyed. I really thought no-one could survive that because it was completely mashed up.

“Everyone was crying and running everywhere. A woman was crying for her daughter who was still on the train."

Saturday 13 July 2013

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/france-train-crash-looters-picking-2050956

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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

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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

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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

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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/

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4 bodies yet to be identified after Secunderabad hotel collapse

Three days after the City Light Hotel collapsed in Hyderabad, relatives of four victims are yet to be informed about the death of their loved ones. Of the 17 people who perished in the incident, bodies of four that were extricated from the rubble on Monday are yet to be identified and are lying unclaimed in the Gandhi Hospital mortuary. Investigating officials said these deceased hotel workers hail from Odisha and presumed that their relatives did not turn up as they were unaware of the mishap.

Every year, several hundred people migrate to the city from states like Odisha, Bihar, Assam and Madhya Pradesh looking for work. Experts said the latest deaths underscore the lackadaisical way in which most of these workers are recruited. Employed mostly in small eateries, owners do not have a clue about their original addresses and in some cases, do not even bother asking their names, they said. The fact that they are provided free food and accommodation lures them to these jobs. Several such workers were present at the City Light Hotel as well.

Ch Srinivasulu, a sub-inspector attached to Mahankali police station, said attempts are on to trace the victims' family members. "Their pictures have been pasted on hospital mortuary walls and information has also been disseminated via other means. We have collected their fingerprints and preserved their DNA," said Srinivasulu. He added that other hotel employees were helping them identify the bodies.

Meanwhile, another injured person, who had earlier sought treatment at a private hospital, got himself admitted at the Gandhi Hospital on Tuesday evening. Currently, 17 people who escaped with injuries in the incident are undergoing treatment at the state-run hospital.

Even three days after the mishap, the hospital is filled with the cries of relatives, with nurses and other staff trying to console them. Many among the dead, including M Ramesh, 40, were the lone breadwinners of his families. His eldest daughter aged 18 is also physically challenged. Doctors said they tried to do everything to save the victims, from surgeries to ventilator support.

Thursday 11 July 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/4-bodies-yet-to-be-identified/articleshow/21009530.cms

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Ship owner offers reward for tip leading to the recovery of six of its missing crewmen

The owner firm of Bangladeshi cargo vessel MV Hope yesterday offered a $6,000 reward for the information leading to the recovery of six of its missing crewmen — $1000 for each.

Captain Mohiuddin Abdul Kadir, representative of the insurance firm P&I (Protection and Indemnity) Club, said the ship owner’s agent in Thailand had offered the reward to draw attention of the local fishermen and boatmen.

The online version of Phuket Gazette, an English language newspaper of Thailand, uploaded a piece of news Tuesday afternoon, saying that the local fishermen had seen four bodies in life jackets floating around 50 km off the spot where the ship tilted.

On that night, the ship’s owner firm Trade Breeze Shipping Limited had contacted Captain Segsit I — an official of the ship owner’s agent firm in Thailand named Thoresen Shipping & Logistics — to verify the report, Captain Kadir told The Daily Star.

“We told him to take immediate measures to recover the bodies if they were missing crew of the MV Hope,” Kadir said.

The cargo ship tilted in the Andaman Sea near the coast of Phuket in Thailand on July 4. All the 17 crewmen abandoned the ship fearing that it would capsize.

Nine crewmen have so far been rescued, and bodies of two have also been recovered. But six other crewmen remained missing.

Meanwhile, three out of four crewmen, who were undergoing treatment at a hospital in Phuket after they were rescued on Thursday and Friday, would arrive in Dhaka tonight on a Bangkok Airways flight, said Captain Kadir.

They are seaman Abu Bakar Siddique, second officer Mohammad Mobarak Hossain, and deck cadet Raek Fairooz.

Engine cadet Mushfiqur needed to stay in the hospital for a week more, Kadir said.

He added that the bodies of chief officer Mahabub Morshed and chief engineer Kazi Saifuddin were supposed to be taken to Bangkok from Phuket today to complete some legal procedures.

Thursday 11 July 2013

http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/ship-owner-offers-reward-for-tip/

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FASE Advanced Course on Postmortem Interval and the FASE 10th Anniversary Symposium, Heidelberg, Germany, 26-28th Sept 2013

This year FASE celebrates its 10th anniversary and we decided to celebrate it along with the FASE Advanced Course on Postmortem Interval, organizing an one-day forensic anthropology symposium. At the symposium you can present your latest research and work through poster and oral presentations. The symposium is also meant to allow the participants to share experience and opinions and to confront themselves with forensic anthropology practice in other countries. For that reason this year the Symposium will have an invited speaker : Bradley Adams, PhD, D-ABFA - Director of Forensic Anthropology Unit, Office of Chief Medical Examiner, New York, USA. The FASE Advanced Course on Postmortem Interval and the FASE 10th Anniversary Symposium which will take place in Heidelberg, Germany on 26th, 27th (Advanced course) and 28th September 2013 (FASE symposium). The deadline for abstracts' submission is July 20th, and for registration is July 31st. Details can be found on the FASE website: http://forensicanthropology.eu

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Search for China landslide missing in Sichuan

The death toll from a landslide caused by heavy rain in China's Sichuan province has risen to 12, state media report, with 11 people still missing.

Wednesday's landslide in Dujiangyan city covered an area of two sq km (0.8 sq miles), reports say.

It followed days of bad weather that has led to flooding which has damaged hundreds of homes in southwest China.

The weather has forced the evacuation of more than 36,000 people in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.

Rescuers had found a total of 12 bodies at the site of the landslide in Zhongxing town, Dujiangyan, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

Officials say search and rescue operations are ongoing, with life detection instruments being used to locate survivors.

There are about 1.5 million cubic m (329 million gallons) of mud, rock and debris covering the area affected by the landslide, an expert quoted by Xinhua said.

Earlier on Thursday, state media reported that more than 60 people were missing across Sichuan province as a result of the weather.

'Buzzing noise'

A local villager in Dujiangyan, Gao Shiquan, said that he ran outside his home after he heard the landslide.

"I could see the hill opposite me had collapsed. There was a buzzing noise for around two or three minutes. My first feeling was that the hill had collapsed and the entire hillside was buried," he told Xinhua news agency.

Rescuers had safely relocated over 350 tourists affected by the landslide, the Dujiangyan local government announced on its website.

More than 1,000 blankets had been distributed to Dujiangyan, while neighbouring Wenchuan county, which had also been hit by floods, received 500 disaster relief tents and 500 quilts, state media said.

Dujiangyan official Liu Junlin told reporters on Wednesday that the rainfall in the city was the highest since national weather records were established in 1954.

On Wednesday, more than 2,000 people were trapped in a tunnel expressway connecting Dujiangyan with Wenchuan, as a result of the heavy rain.

They waited several hours before being rescued and relocated, Wenchuan's emergency management office said.

Thursday 11 July 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-23253044

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