TIRANA, Albania: Police say that one woman has died and 11 others were injured when a fire broke out in a bus in northern Albania.
Police said Friday that the fire broke out at 11:25 a.m. (0925 GMT) when the Mercedes bus was near the old bazaar in Kruja, 35 km north of the capital, Tirana.
It was taking 30 Christian Orthodox believers coming from the southwestern port city of Vlora to visit the castle of the Albanian national hero Skanderbeg, a 15th-century warrior.
Local media quoted one of the passengers saying the fire spread rapidly and that passengers could not reach the bus door, but got out after some passers-by smashed some windows.
Doctors said eight of the injured, all elderly women, were gravely ill with burns over more than half of their bodies. First reports had said 12 people were injured.
Church officials said that the group was on a pilgrimage around Albania and neighboring Montenegro.
Police say the cause of the fire is being investigated.
1 dead, 12 injured in Albania bus fire
1 dead, 12 injured in Albania bus fire
Germany plays down threat of US invading Greenland after talks
WASHINGTON: Germany’s top diplomat on Monday played down the risk of a US attack on Greenland, after President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to seize the island from NATO ally Denmark.
Asked after meeting Secretary of State Marco Rubio about a unilateral military move by Trump, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said: “I have no indication that this is being seriously considered.”
“Rather, I believe there is a common interest in addressing the security issues that arise in the Arctic region, and that we should and will do so,” he told reporters.
“NATO is only now in the process of developing more concrete plans on this, and these will then be discussed jointly with our US partners.”
Wadephul’s visit comes ahead of talks this week in Washington between Rubio and the top diplomats of Denmark and Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Trump in recent days has vowed that the United States will take Greenland “one way or the other” and said he can do it “the nice way or the more difficult way.”
Greenland’s government on Monday repeated that it would not accept a US takeover under “any circumstance.”
Greenland and NATO also said Monday that they were working on bolstering defense of the Arctic territory, a key concern cited by Trump.
Trump has repeatedly pointed to growing Arctic activity by Russia and China as a reason why the United States needs to take over Greenland.
But he has also spoken more broadly of his desire to expand the land mass controlled by the United States.
