12 Indians killed in quarry collapse after cyclone rains

People holding umbrellas walk past a damaged house and uprooted tree during rainfall in Guwahati on May 28, 2024, following the landfall of Cyclone Remal in India. (AFP)
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Updated 28 May 2024
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12 Indians killed in quarry collapse after cyclone rains

  • Several highways and key roads were disrupted by landslides, and all schools were shut
  • India’s weather office warned of extremely heavy rains in northeastern states on Tuesday

Guwahati: Torrential rains in the wake of a powerful cyclone caused the collapse of a quarry in India’s Mizoram state killing 12 people, government officials said Tuesday.

“So far 12 bodies have been found, we are looking for more,” deputy commissioner of Aizawl district Nazuk Kumar told AFP.

Rescue efforts in the quarry were being hampered by “heavy rains,” police director general Anil Shukla said, NDTV news network reported.

Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma offered compensation to families of the victims of the “landslide due to Cyclone Remal.”

“I pray for the success of rescue and relief operations and wish a speedy recovery of the injured,” India’s President Droupadi Murmu said on social media.

In Mizoram, several highways and key roads were disrupted by landslides. All schools were shut and government employees asked to work from home.

India’s weather office has issued warnings of extremely heavy rainfall across Mizoram and other northeastern states on Tuesday.

In India’s neighboring Assam state, one person was killed and heavy rains had cut the power supply, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a statement.

The cyclone made landfall in low-lying Bangladesh and neighboring India on Sunday evening with fierce gales and crashing waves.

Overall, at least 38 people died in the cyclone or storms in its wake.

In India, eight people died in West Bengal state, officials said Tuesday, updating an earlier toll of six, taking the total killed in the country to at least 21.

In neighboring Bangladesh, which bore the brunt of the cyclone that made landfall on Sunday, at least 17 people died, according to the disaster management office and police.


Russia hits Ukraine power grid with ‘massive attack’: operator

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Russia hits Ukraine power grid with ‘massive attack’: operator

KYIV: A “massive attack” by Russian forces on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has caused power outages across the country, the state grid operator said on Saturday.
Russia has pressed on with its invasion of Ukraine in recent days despite the two countries holding US-brokered talks to end the nearly four-year-long war.
Ukrainian officials have accused Moscow of deliberately targeting energy infrastructure, causing outages that have left hundreds of thousands of people without lighting or heating in temperatures well below zero.
“Russia is carrying out another massive attack on the Ukrainian power grid facilities,” grid operator Ukrenergo said on Saturday.
“Due to the damage caused by the enemy, emergency outages have been applied in most regions,” it said in a statement on Telegram.
“Currently, the attack is still ongoing. Restoration work will begin as soon as the security situation allows.”
Ukraine and Russia have held two rounds of US-mediated negotiations in Abu Dhabi since January.
Kyiv and Moscow have agreed to a major prisoner swap but have made no breakthrough on the issue of territory, a key sticking point in negotiations.
Moscow has accused Ukraine of orchestrating the shooting of a top military intelligence general in the Russian capital on Friday, leaving him wounded. Kyiv has not commented.