Hundreds of rescuers scrambled Tuesday to try to locate more than 60 workers trapped in a Siberian hydroelectric plant after an accident on Monday. But with only two survivors recovered, the acting chief executive of RusHydro, which owns the plant, said that most had probably drowned.
At least 12 people were confirmed dead after the bursting of a water conduit that leads to the turbines at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric plant in the Khakassia region of Siberia, according to the Emergency Situations Ministry. As many as 64 workers from the plant, Russia’s largest power generator, were still missing as of Tuesday morning, the ministry said.
More than a day after a freight train derailed and exploded on the Italian coast, officials raised the death toll to 17, including two small children and an unidentified man who subsequently died of severe burns, news agencies reported.
The 14-car train carrying liquefied petroleum gas derailed in Viareggio around midnight on Monday, engulfing a neighborhood in flames. More than 34 people injured, 12 of them in serious condition.
The train was traveling south through coastal Tuscany when the axle on the first car broke, officials said. The train ran off the tracks and exploded.
More than 200 people are believed dead after an Air France passenger jet disappeared over the Atlantic on a flight from Brazil.
Officials said they had “no hope” for Air France Flight 447 which dropped off the radar three hours and less than 200 miles into a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
As the Brazilian air force mounted a search and rescue operation for the Airbus 330-200k in the waters around the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, families of passengers gathered at a crisis centre in Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport awaiting news.
A 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck L’Aquila, Italy before dawn Monday, killing more than 150 people, injuring 1,500 and leaving tens of thousands homeless. (April 6)
A strong earthquake hit Italy at approximately 3:35 a.m. local time on the morning of April 6, 2009. The 6.3-magnitude quake was centered 53 miles east of Rome, in L’Aquila, in the region of Abruzzo.
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The death toll from the Abruzzo earthquake reached 228 last night as a series of strong aftershocks continued to rattle through the region.
A tremor of 5.6 magnitude spread more panic yesterday evening in L’Aquila, a city once home to about 70,000 people, where the impact was felt the strongest. At least one person was reported killed as a result of the shock. Monday’s earthquake was between 5.8 to 6.3 magnitude.
A powerful earthquake in mountainous central Italy knocked down whole blocks of buildings early Monday as residents slept, killing more than 150 people in the country’s deadliest quake in nearly three decades. Tens of thousands were homeless and 1,500 were injured.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi, speaking by telephone with one of the TV networks of his media empire, said more than 150 people were dead and more than 1,500 people injured in the quake, which struck near the medieval town of L’Aquila, nestled in the Apennine mountains, before dawn.
Rescue workers are searching for up to four people still missing after a building housing archives collapsed on Tuesday in the German city of Cologne.
Witnesses said there may have been two people inside a car parked outside the archive and another two in a nearby building that subsequently collapsed.
The area must be stabilised before rescue teams can move into the rubble.
Cracks and groaning noises had alerted staff and visitors at the archive, all of whom escaped before it collapsed.
A Turkish airliner carrying 134 people crashed at Amsterdam’s main airport Wednesday, killing nine people and injuring more than 50 others.
The airliner crashed into a muddy field just short of Amsterdam main airport mid-morning local time, breaking into three pieces. The Boeing 737 aircraft had been en route from Istanbul to The Netherlands and was trying to land in misty weather. The Turkish airline initially said there had been no casualties, but Dutch authorities quickly amended that claim.
The Turkish Transport Minister said it was a miracle there weren’t more casualties.
The heavy snow that disrupted the lives and businesses of millions of people this week will continue to cause problems as treacherous weather moves across the country, forecasters have warned.
Northern Scotland, Wales and south-western parts of England and the south coast are at the greatest risk of further snow later in the week, according to the Met Office. Conditions in the areas worst hit by Monday’s snow – the most widespread in the UK for 18 years – are likely to remain dangerous as the roads turn icy with a drop in temperature.
The Highways Agency said most big roads and motorways were open and clear yesterday but advised postponing all but essential journeys in the worst-affected areas.
