At least 15 people were injured and Bangladesh’s largest hospital recorded a jump in cases of sedative poisoning following Brazil’s shock departure from the World Cup, a doctor said yesterday.
The injured and poisoned were taken to the state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) after Brazil lost its quarter-final match against Netherlands, a game watched by nearly 80 million Bangladeshi fans.
Firoz Ahmed, an emergency ward doctor at the 1,700-bed hospital, said among those treated on Friday night were at least 15 Brazil or Argentina supporters.
“They fought after some Argentine supporters celebrated Brazil’s shock defeat. Most have head injuries, hit by sticks or stones,” he said.
Most Bangladeshis support either of the two Latin American soccer giants and flags of Argentina and Brazil began fluttering around the South Asian nation weeks before the tournament began in South Africa last month.
Ahmed said that at least five Brazilian supporters were admitted to the hospital due to “excess taking of sleeping pills as they could not digest the loss.”
“We got a higher than usual number of sedative-poisoning cases following the match,” he said.
The usually cricket-mad nation has been gripped by World Cup fever despite its national soccer team failing to qualify for the tournament.
Last week soccer fans forced the closure of the country’s leading engineering university and damaged vehicles and attacked electricity distribution centers when a power cut hit TV coverage of an Argentina match.
Some factories in Dhaka have also shut down during games to reduce power blackouts.
‘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
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