A free swimming wheelchair service was launched in Dubai on Tuesday by the Dubai Civic Body. This community initiative is only for the elderly and disabled.
The civic body has arranged 15 swimming wheelchairs in Al-Mamzar and Jumairah beaches to help people with special needs to enjoy and have fun like others. A senior official told Arab News that the department will add more chairs in the future if the experience is successful.
About a dozen people with special needs and the elderly took to the low waters off Al-Mamzar Park on Tuesday after the launching ceremony. They expressed their happiness on the new move. “The move comes as part of the civic body’s keenness to achieve the strategic goal of the Dubai Government to be one of the most friendly cities in the world for people with special needs by 2020 through the initiative ‘My Community … A City for Everyone’,” said Hussain Nasser Lootah, director-general of the municipality. The launching ceremony was attended by senior officials from Dubai Municipality, Dubai Sports Council and the Community Center for Elderly.
“Dubai is the first Arab city that provides this facility for people with special needs. We selected these chairs after a market study of the product and the best practices in the world. The chairs that costs around AED 9,000 each are imported from France,” Lootah explained.
‘We hope these chairs will make our brothers and sisters with special needs and elderly people more comfortable to swim in the designated areas of the beach.
They can use chairs without the help of others and the services are totally free of charge,” he said. “In addition, we have already formed a team of lifeguards and trainers in both Al-Mamzar and Jumairah beaches to ensure the safety of people,” Lootah further said.
Floating wheelchairs launched at Dubai beaches
Floating wheelchairs launched at Dubai beaches
Mick Jagger’s fiancee ‘physically attacked’ at exclusive London club
- Melanie Hamrick, 38, dined with a friend before heading to private members’ club Annabel’s in Berkeley Square, Mayfair, where the incident happened
- The author, choreographer and former ballerina has been in a relationship with the 82-year-old Rolling Stones singer since 2014 and they have a 9-year-old son together
LONDON: Melanie Hamrick, Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger’s fiancee, said she was attacked at an elite and exclusive private member’s club in Mayfair, central London.
The 38-year-old said the incident on Tuesday at Annabel’s in Berkeley Square had left her heartbroken and shaken.
In a message posted later that night on Instagram, she wrote: “This is incredibly hard to share, but I was physically attacked at Annabel’s Mayfair tonight.
“I’m so thankful to my friends for protecting me. Two people grabbed me from behind and thank God for the good people who stepped in to help me.
“I’m shaken, sad and heartbroken that people can treat each other this way.”
The message was deleted a few hours after it appeared.
Hamrick has been in a relationship with 82-year-old Jagger since 2014, and she confirmed in April last year that they became engaged about two or three years earlier. They have a son, Deveraux, who was born in 2016.
Hamrick is a choreographer, author and former ballerina who performed with the American Ballet Theatre for 15 years before retiring in 2019.
Before the incident on Tuesday, she had dined with a socialite friend, Emma Thynn, before heading to Annabel’s. Sources at the venue said staff were not notified of an attack. The Metropolitan Police said it had not receive any report of an incident, the Daily Mail newspaper reported.
The incident is believed to have taken place outside of the club. In the past few weeks there has been a series of daytime heists targeting luxury goods stores across London. It is not known if the incident involving Hamrick was related to these.
However, the area around the prestigious Berkeley Square has become one of the worst in London, and even in Europe, for robberies and street crime, the Daily Mail said. Official figures show that people in the area were 30 times more likely to fall victim to crime compared with those in other parts of the city, the newspaper added.
Numbers of thefts and robberies, mainly of mobile phones, have tripled in London over the past four years, with tens of thousands of reported cases, particularly in the upmarket Mayfair and St James’s areas.
Organized criminal gangs have reportedly been targeting high-value luxury brands such as Rolex and Yves Saint Laurent across London. Some visitors have even hired private security while visiting the city.
Last month, the Daily Mail reported that Tom Cruise, 63, had abruptly moved out of his £35 million ($47 million) luxury apartment in One Hyde Park, a high-rise in West London, over safety fears.
