Category: English

ISTANBUL — Four people on board were killed when an air ambulance helicopter crashed after colliding with a hospital building in Türkiye’s Aegean province of Mugla on Sunday.

The helicopter, owned by the health ministry, lost control due to heavy fog before colliding with the building of the state hospital, the NTV broadcaster reported.

Onboard the helicopter were one pilot, a technical staff member, a doctor, and a healthcare worker. Preliminary reports indicated that all four were killed, said the report.

The accident occurred during the takeoff, said Mugla Governor Idris Akbiyik.

XINHUA

ISTANBUL — Eighteen people were injured in a traffic accident in western Türkiye when a truck collided with a passenger bus on a highway, the state Anadolu Agency reported on Sunday.

The accident occurred on the highway near the Dinar District of Afyonkarahisar in western Türkiye, injuring the bus driver and 17 passengers onboard.

The exact time of the accident is still unknown.

Health, gendarmerie and police teams were dispatched to the scene and the injured were hospitalized.

XINHUA

ABUJA — At least 22 people were killed in a stampede during a philanthropic initiative to distribute food items and vegetable oil to locals ahead of Christmas celebrations in Okija, a town in Nigeria’s southeastern state of Anambra, Saturday, the police said Sunday.

Tochukwu Ikenga, the spokesperson for the police in Anambra, said in a statement that “there were injured casualties receiving treatment at local hospitals” but did not give an exact figure, following the fatal incident Saturday morning. He said an investigation was underway on the incident.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s national police chief Kayode Egbetokun has issued a stern warning against the unorganized “distribution of palliatives and funfairs,” which have recently led to stampedes and fatalities among vulnerable citizens in the country.

Egbetokun said in a statement Saturday that the warning came in response to the increasing number of stampedes resulting in injuries and deaths, particularly during palliative distributions ahead of the Christmas celebration, describing them as “uncoordinated.”

On Wednesday, at least 35 people were killed and six critically injured in an earlier stampede during a children’s carnival in the southwestern city of Ibadan. At least 10 people, including four children, were killed, while eight others sustained injuries in a separate stampede during a relief item distribution at a local church in the Maitama district of Abuja, the Nigerian capital, Saturday.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Saturday called on state and local authorities to implement strict crowd control measures nationwide, following the fatal incidents.

“Local and state authorities should no longer tolerate operational lapses by organizations and corporate bodies involved in charitable and humanitarian activities,” Tinubu said.

XINHUA

GAZA — At least 23 Palestinians were killed by Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported.

At least nine people, including three children and two women, were killed, and some others were injured as a result of the Israeli bombing of the Musa bin Nusayr School, which houses displaced people in the Al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City, WAFA said.

Four more people were killed when the Israeli army bombed a vehicle on the Al-Jalaa Street in Gaza City, it added.

Five citizens, including four children, were killed on Sunday morning in Israel’s shelling of the Jabalia town, north of Gaza City, WAFA said in a separate report.

In the southern Gaza Strip, two people were killed when the Israeli army bombed their apartment west of Khan Yunis, and three others died in the Israeli bombing of the city of Rafah, WAFA said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Sunday that with the direction of intelligence, the air force conducted a “precise strike” on Hamas militants who were operating inside a command-and-control center in the Gaza Strip.

The command-and-control center, which was embedded inside a compound that previously served as the Musa bin Nusayr School, was used by the militants to plan and execute attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel, it added.

XINHUA

VLADIVOSTOK — The missing An-2 light aircraft, which disappeared in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on Thursday, has been found with all three people aboard alive, local authorities said on Sunday.

All three individuals on board, including two crew members and one passenger, have been evacuated by a Mi-8 helicopter from Kamchatka rescue teams and are being transported to Milkovskaya District Hospital, where their health conditions will be assessed, said the regional office of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.

According to the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency, the missing plane and people were found near Mount Tundrovaya early Sunday.

The plane, which was en route from Milkovo to Ossora, failed to arrive at its destination on Thursday, prompting an intensive search and rescue operation.

XINHUA

ABUJA — At least 10 people, including children, were killed in a stampede during a relief item distribution at a local church in the Maitama district of Abuja, the Nigerian capital, on Saturday, local authorities said.

A church official said that an unspecified number of individuals were also injured when the distribution of relief items, including food and clothing ahead of Christmas celebrations, turned chaotic Saturday morning at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Maitama.

Padre Mike Nsikak Umoh, spokesperson for the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, said the event attracted more than 3,000 people from nearby villages and low-income suburbs. Following the “tragic incident,” the “palliative distribution” was suspended, he said.

According to witnesses, at least seven women and children were among the victims recovered from the scene. Many attendees had reportedly arrived as early as 4:00 a.m. local time, despite the event being scheduled to start between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. Saturday.

In the aftermath of the stampede, security operatives, including secret police and military personnel, were deployed to restore order, disperse the crowd, and secure the area.

Neither the government nor security agencies have yet commented on the tragedy.

XINHUA

TEHRAN — At least 10 people were killed and 17 others injured on Saturday as a bus plunged into a ravine in the western Iranian province of Lorestan, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Just after noon, the provincial emergency medical services (EMS) received the report of the incident, which occurred on an intercity road in Poldokhtar County, Fars said, citing Ali Mohammadi, public relations director of the EMS organization.

Nine of the victims died at the scene, while another was pronounced dead at the hospital, Mohammadi said, adding all the injured have been transferred to medical centers.

The EMS official noted that the bus with conscripts onboard was traveling from the southwestern province of Khuzestan to the western province of Kermanshah.

Chief of Lorestan Traffic Police Mohammad Zarei attributed the road accident to speeding and the driver’s failure to control the bus, which carried 27 people.

XINHUA

BERLIN — At least five people were killed and over 200 others injured after a car rammed into a large crowd at a German Christmas market in the central German city of Magdeburg Friday evening, German news agency dpa reported Saturday, citing State Premier Reiner Haseloff.

“We have five deaths and over 200 injuries, many of them serious and severe,” Haseloff said, noting that the toll was far worse than initially thought when the incident occurred.

A car plowed through a Christmas market in Magdeburg on Friday evening. German authorities are investigating a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who has been living in Germany since 2006 and worked in a nearby town. Police searched his home overnight.

The identities of the fatalities have not been revealed. A memorial service is to be held in Magdeburg’s cathedral at 7 p.m. (1800 GMT) Saturday night.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other top officials, including Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser, have arrived in Magdeburg on Saturday.

Faeser ordered Saturday morning that all flags at all federal buildings be flown at half-mast nationwide.

XINHUA

KUNMING — Three people have been confirmed dead in a coal mine accident in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, local authorities said on Saturday.

The accident occurred at around 10:42 a.m. on Friday at the Hengda coal mine, located in Fuyuan County of Qujing City, according to the Yunnan bureau of the National Mine Safety Administration.

Initial investigation suggests that the incident resulted from the collapse of a coal bunker within the mine’s second mining area. Currently, all underground operations have been halted, and further investigation is under way.

XINHUA

ISTANBUL — Five athletes were injured on Saturday when an avalanche hit a ski resort in Türkiye’s eastern province of Erzurum, the Health Ministry announced.

One of the injured is in critical condition, said the ministry via its social media account.

The incident occurred at Palandoken Ski Resort at 10:22 a.m. local time (0722 GMT) when athletes of the National Judo Team were hiking in an area specialized for extreme sports outside the skiing slopes, according to Erzurum Governor Mustafa Ciftci.

Search and rescue teams, along with medical units, have been dispatched to the area. These teams have taken precautionary measures to ensure safety amid potential risks of further avalanches, local broadcaster NTV reported.

XINHUA