ASTANA: Fifty-two people were killed on Thursday (Jan 18) when the Russia-bound bus they were travelling on caught fire in Kazakhstan, the central Asian nation’s emergency services ministry said. A handout picture provided by the Kazakh emergency situations ministry on Jan 18, 2018 shows a charred bus on a road in the region around the city of Aktobe. (Photo: Handout / Kazakhstan’s emergency situations ministry / AFP) “On January 18 at 10:30 am (0430 GMT), a bus caught fire … 55 passengers and two drivers were on board. Five people who managed to escape are receiving medical assistance. The rest died on the spot,” the ministry said, without elaborating on the cause of the blaze. All those who died are believed to be Uzbek nationals, an interior ministry official told Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency. Kazakh media reported they were migrant workers travelling to Russia. Uzbekistan’s emergency services ministry said it had opened a hotline. The vehicle was registered in Kazakhstan, emergency services ministry official Ruslan Imankulov told AFP. He said the fire spread very quickly. – Short circuit blamed – Regional emergency service officials initially blamed the fire on a short circuit and said the bus was overloaded, Interfax-Kazakstan news agency reported. Ministry representative Imankulov did not confirm this however, telling AFP: “It’s too early to talk about the reasons for the fire.” Panic broke out on board the bus, hindering evacuation, while survivors managed to climb through a door and window, Kazakh news site BNews reported. Two of the survivors… [Read full story]
At least 16 people were killed and nine others injured as a blast took place in a passenger bus on Monday mooring in Kohat, northwest Pakistan, police said. The blast occurred on Hangu road in Kohat in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Police said that at least 16 people were killed. The bus was completely destroyed in the blast. According to local TV channels reports nearly 18 people were on board the bus. There were conflicting reports about the nature of the blast. Leading private Geo television quoted police sources described the blast as suicide attack. ARY TV reported that the bomb attacked…... [read more]
At least nine people were killed and many others injured when a passenger bus hit a mountainside near Nha Trang Friday morning and was hit by rocks after it triggered off their fall. Five died on the spot and four at the Khanh Hoa General Hospital, which is also treating around 20 people, including the bus driver Nguyen Hai, 46, whose legs were broken, according to a report by the Voice of Vietnam. Two of the victims were a woman and her child, while another was a 77-year-old woman. Three of the injured had brain injuries, according to police. News website Dan Tri quoted Le…... [read more]
(VOV) - A bus accident in Laos has left nine Vietnamese passengers killed and six others injured. 12 Vietnamese killed in bus accident in Laos Vietnamese tourists injured in bus accident in Thailand The incident took place on December 19 while a bus carrying 15 Vietnamese passengers turned over. All the victims are from Van Dien and Nam Thanh commune, Nam Dan district in the central province of Nghe An and identified as workers at a construction site owned by Tran Ba Anh, who was also killed in the accident. As scheduled, the remains of the dead will be sent…... [read more]
Floods have killed 52 people and left 32 missing in China since the flood season started in June, a senior official said Wednesday, warning of more heavy rains. Heavy rains have inundated parts of 12 provinces in central and southern China and affected 4.81 million people so far since the flood season arrived, Shu Qingpeng, deputy head of the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, told a conference. Floods have destroyed 7,462 houses and submerged 255,000 hectares of farmland, incurring direct economic losses of 4.92 billion yuan (760 million U.S. dollars), he said. Heavy rainfalls since June…... [read more]
Japanese teacher killed by bus The Saigon Times Daily A popular Japanese teacher was killed at Ben Thanh Bus Station in downtown HCMC while walking on crutches along the road to catch a bus at round 3:30 p.m. on September 30. Kakinuma Joji, 50, was said to have slipped and fallen while walking from the station on her way home to District 7. At the same time, a bus running on the route from the National University to Le Hong Phong Road was approaching the station to let passengers off. The driver had no time to react and ran over…... [read more]
