Four children were among 27 people killed when a fire in India ripped through a crowded amusement park, a local official said yesterday, as rescuers scoured the site the morning after the blaze.
Survivors reported having to kick down doors and leap out of windows to escape the inferno that swept through a center packed full of young people enjoying games such as bowling, Indian media reported.
Lines of bodies draped in white cloths were laid out before being taken away from the center in Rajkot, a city in the western state of Gujarat.
Photo: AP
The four children reported dead were all under the age of 12, police said.
The local Rajkot government said in a statement that forensic officers were “collecting DNA samples from the remains,” as “the bodies have been charred beyond recognition.”
Outside the still-smoldering wreckage of the park, the mother and sister of 20-year-old Asha Kathad — who had worked in the center — waited for news.
They held up a photograph of Asha on a mobile phone.
“We don’t have any information about her,” Asha’s mother told local reporters, too distraught to give her full name as she wept.
More than 300 people were enjoying the summer holiday weekend in the two-story structure at the TRP amusement and theme park when the blaze broke out on Saturday evening, Rajkot fire officer Ilesh Kher told reporters on the night of the fire.
“People got trapped as a temporary structure at the facility collapsed near the entrance, making it difficult for the people to come out,” he said.
The flames spread rapidly because of the structure’s flammable material, he added.
“The toll in the fire incident is now 27,” top local government official Prabhav Joshi said. “Police have arrested two persons and the investigation is continuing.”
Survivors recalled their horror as they struggled to flee the fire.
“We were bowling when two staff members told us there was a fire on the ground floor and we should leave. The area was soon full of smoke,” Pruthvirajsinh Jadeja told the Indian Express newspaper.
“We tried to escape from the rear door, but couldn’t. I saw a beam of light coming from outside. I kicked down the tin sheet and five of us made our way out, jumping from the first floor,” he said.
Also on Saturday night, a fire in India’s capital ripped through a children’s hospital, killing six newborns, with passersby charging into the burning building to pull out the other newborns from the ward.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS