Panic gripped Dhaka residents when a seven-story building tilted at a slum where another apartment block collapsed this week, killing at least 25 people, police said yesterday.
Sub-inspector Alamgir Hossain said scores of residents were evacuated after cracks were seen in the building at Dhaka’s Begunbari slum, where the four-story apartment building toppled onto shanty dwellings late on Tuesday.
“The building tilted late Friday, creating panic. We have evacuated the residents and are trying to persuade neighbors to leave their houses as the building may collapse,” Alamgir said.
He said the building’s owner had been arrested as he had flouted construction laws by erecting another floor on top of the permitted six stories.
“The city development authority has decided to demolish the building,” the police officer said.
On Tuesday night, the four-story building first tilted and then collapsed within minutes, killing at least 25 people as it crushed tin-roofed slum dwellings below.
Police said the building was raised on columns on swampy ground without approval from housing authorities.
Building collapses are common in the Bangladeshi capital, where construction laws are seldom enforced. In one of the worst such incidents, at least 70 people were killed when a garment factory collapsed outside Dhaka in 2005.
The city suffered another disaster this week when a fire ripped through a densely populated area, killing at least 117 people.
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
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