An international forensic team examined the charred interior of a Paraguayan supermarket to determine the cause of a weekend blaze that killed more than 400 people, many of whom were trapped inside by locked doors.
As the specialists from Argentina, Colombia and the US took burn samples from the building, Interior Minister Orlando Fiorott said the investigation "clearly points" to an accidental gas leak that ignited. He said that it didn't look as if Sunday's blaze had been intentionally set, but cautioned that the findings were preliminary.
The death toll was revised to 426 on Wednesday, down from 464 a day earlier; 520 people remained hospitalized with burns and other injuries. The attorney general's office said 153 were reported missing.
Officials charged a co-owner of the supermarket and four others with manslaughter on Tuesday after a security guard said he was ordered to lock the doors to prevent people from stealing.
Officials said they were checking reports that an exploding gas canister could have started the flames, which forced a floor to collapse, crushing cars and burning bodies beyond recognition.
Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte has called for a swift and thorough investigation into the tragedy at the Ycua Bolanos supermarket, food court and parking garage in suburban Asuncion, the nation's capital.
The charges came after chief investigator Edgar Sanchez said a security guard testified he was told via radio to lock the doors when the fire began. Sanchez said the guard didn't know who gave the order.
Meanwhile, Paraguayans continued to mourn their dead.
Outside a nightclub near the supermarket that became a makeshift morgue, schoolchildren held a vigil and lit candles to remember the victims.
"One of my best friends was killed in the fire and I miss her terribly," said 12-year-old Ana Benitez. "She sat next to me in class and it's going to be painful when school resumes and I see that empty chair next to me."
Paraguayan officials said they had begun reviewing leading shopping centers in the capital and their emergency preparations.
Angel Villalba, the president of the Paraguayan Association of Supermarkets, told a radio station that initial findings have been alarming.
"Almost none of them have emergency exits," he said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing
RSS