SYDNEY: Indigenous residents forced the closure of Australia’s famed Uluru national park Tuesday, after blocking tourists from accessing the sacred site amid fears over the spread of coronavirus.
About 30 members of the local community physically blocked dozens of tourists arriving from virus-hit eastern Australia from accessing the park entrance, said Glenn Irvine, manager of Mutitjulu Community Aboriginal Corporation, which handles local community issues.
Locals said they were blindsided by the arrival of 43 tourists on a flight from Brisbane, Queensland and decided to take action.
“We were of the understanding that the flight was canceled,” Irvine said.
“We asked for the national park to be closed,” he added. When that did not happen, “members of the community gathered at the park gate.”
After crisis talks with local authorities Tuesday, the park remained closed.
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park said in a statement: “We have the utmost respect for Uluru-Kata Tjuta’s traditional owners and are continuing to work in good faith with them and all other parties to keep Mutitjulu residents safe.”
More than 395,000 people visited the park in the 12 months to June 2019, according to Parks Australia.
Irvine said there was now tacit agreement that the tourists — who remained nearby — would be tested for the virus and no more groups would come from COVID-19 “hotspots.”
Queensland has recorded just over 1,000 cases of the virus since the pandemic began and new cases have been relatively rare.
But even in areas where tourism is a mainstay of the local economy, many Aboriginal groups are fearful that any outbreak could badly hit remote Outback communities.
Travel to the Northern Territory, including Uluru — once known as Ayer’s Rock — has been severely restricted since the pandemic began.
Those measures were recently eased, but visitors from Australia’s COVID-19 hotpots are still required to quarantine for 14 days.
Brisbane is currently included on that list.
Overseas travelers remain banned from entering Australia except for some very closely prescribed cases.
Australia recorded 453 new cases Tuesday, taking the total to 18,728 with 10,787 recoveries. The death toll is now 232, after 11 more fatalities.
Aboriginal group blocks access to Australia’s Uluru over coronavirus fears
https://arab.news/yv4y6
Aboriginal group blocks access to Australia’s Uluru over coronavirus fears
- Locals said they were blindsided by the arrival of 43 tourists on a flight from Brisbane
- Travel to the Northern Territory, including Uluru, has been severely restricted since the pandemic began
Shooter kills 9 at Canadian school and residence
- The shooter was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound
- A total of 27 people were wounded in the shooting, including two with serious injuries
TORONTO: A shooter killed nine people and wounded dozens more at a secondary school and a residence in a remote part of western Canada on Tuesday, authorities said, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in the country’s history.
The suspect, described by police in an initial emergency alert as a “female in a dress with brown hair,” was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
The attack occurred in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, a picturesque mountain valley town in the foothills of the Rockies.
A total of 27 people were wounded in the shooting, including two with serious injuries, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “devastated” by the “horrific acts of violence” and announced he was suspending plans to travel to the Munich Security Conference on Wednesday, where he had been set to hold talks with allies on transatlantic defense readiness.
Police said an alert was issued about an active shooter at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School on Tuesday afternoon.
As police searched the school, they found six people shot dead. A seventh person with a gunshot wound died en route to hospital.
Separately, police found two more bodies at a residence in the town.
The residence is “believed to be connected to the incident,” police said.
At the school, “an individual believed to be the shooter was also found deceased with what appears to be a self?inflicted injury,” police said.
Police have not yet released any information about the age of the shooter or the victims.
“We are devastated by the loss of life and the profound impact this tragedy has had on families, students, staff, and our entire town,” the municipality of Tumbler Ridge said in a statement.
Tumbler Ridge student Darian Quist told public broadcaster CBC that he was in his mechanics class when there was an announcement that the school was in lockdown.
He said that initially he “didn’t think anything was going on,” but started receiving “disturbing” photos about the carnage.
“It set in what was happening,” Quist said.
He said he stayed in lockdown for more than two hours until police stormed in, ordering everyone to put their hands up before escorting them out of the school.
Trent Ernst, a local journalist and a former substitute teacher at Tumbler Ridge, expressed shock over the shooting at the school, where one of his children has just graduated.
He noted that school shootings have been a rarity occurring every few years in Canada compared with the United States, where they are far more frequent.
“I used to kind of go: ‘Look at Canada, look at who we are.’ But then that one school shooting every 2.5 years happens in your town and things... just go off the rails,” he told AFP.
‘Heartbreak’
While mass shootings are extremely rare in Canada, last April, a vehicle attack that targeted a Filipino cultural festival in Vancouver killed 11 people.
British Columbia Premier David Eby called the latest violence “unimaginable.”
Nina Krieger, British Columbia’s minister of public safety, said it was “one of the worst mass shootings in our province’s and country’s history.”
The Canadian Olympic Committee, whose athletes are competing in the 2026 Winter Games in Italy, said Wednesday it was “heartbroken by the news of the horrific school shooting.”
Ken Floyd, commander of the police’s northern district, said: “This has been an incredibly difficult and emotional day for our community, and we are grateful for the cooperation shown as officers continue their work to advance the investigation.”
Floyd told reporters the shooter was the same suspect police described as “female” in a prior emergency alert to community members, but declined to provide any details on the suspect’s identity.
The police said officers were searching other homes and properties in the community to see if there were additional sites connected to the incident.
Tumbler Ridge, a quiet town with roughly 2,400 residents, is more than 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) north of Vancouver, British Columbia’s largest city.
“There are no words sufficient for the heartbreak our community is experiencing tonight,” the municipality said.
