More than 70 young children were killed, some burned beyond recognition, when a fire raged through a school in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu yesterday, police said. The fire also left dozens injured.
"Parents are wailing as they try to identify their children's bodies, some of which are completely roasted," G. Srinivasan, a journalist with The Hindu newspaper, said from Kumbakonam about 2,000km south of New Delhi.
"Some people are collapsing as bodies are being moved for cremation and there is a lot of shouting going on to arrest the owner of the school," he said.
The fire started in the kitchen of the Lord Krishna school as lunch was being cooked for the 900 students, aged between six and 13, including both boys and girls.
Police earlier said Lord Krishna was a girls' school.
Television showed rescuers frantically trying to break into the upper floor to rescue trapped children.
Others battled the blaze with hoses from which water barely trickled.
Crowds of sobbing parents, some beating their chests in anguish, crowded around ambulances in thick smoke.
Witnesses said the school's narrow entrance may have prevented some of the children from escaping the flames.
Police earlier said as many as 100 had been killed, but police Deputy Inspector-General R.C. Kudawla told reporters the toll was 77.
The most senior district official said 71 died.
Dozens were injured, some horribly burned.
The fire had been extinguished and rescuers were searching the building for more dead and injured.
The fire at Kumbakonam, a dusty trading town on the banks of the Cauvery River famous for its temples, was the second major fire tragedy in the state this year.
More than 50 people were killed in an inferno at a marriage hall in January.
In 1995, at least 400 people, mainly children, died when a fire ravaged another school in northern India.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the