Rescuers save ducklings by playing recording of mother’s quack
London: Two little ducklings were rescued from a drain in the UK by quick-thinking firefighters who coaxed them to safety with an iPad recording of their mother’s quack.
The birds, which were only a few days old, fell down a manhole in Burton Bradstock in West Dorset.
They were discovered when holidaymakers heard the mother duck quaking near the manhole cover. They realised there was a faint squeaking sound coming from the drain below, Metro newspaper reported.
“We went out to investigate and saw the mother with eight ducklings which were only a few days old. The mother wouldn’t leave the area. We heard a squeaking noise coming from a nearby drain cover and it became apparent a duckling was trapped in the storm drain,” Mark Hyde, a holidaymaker said.
When rescuers removed the manhole cover, they discovered the ducklings had waddled further into the drain.
Using an iPad, they recorded the sound of the mother duck’s quack and lowered the tablet so that it could be heard by the baby ducks
. Thinking their mother was calling for them, they waddled back towards the manhole cover where they were scooped up in a plastic colander and badminton racquet. (PTI)
Body found in suitcase in Tokyo Station locker
Tokyo: A worker at Japan’s Tokyo Station has gotten an unpleasant shock after opening an abandoned suitcase: the decomposing body of an elderly woman inside. Japanese media said the body was discovered Sunday after the suitcase had been kept in temporary storage for more than a month to see if the owner would turn up.
The bright yellow suitcase measured 28 by 20 by 10 inches. It was found in an unlocked locker at Tokyo’s main train station on April 26.
The body is 140 centimeters tall (4-feet, 7-inches) tall. Police are trying to establish the woman’s identity. (AP)
700-kg kite crashes into crowd in Japan
Tokyo: A 700-kg bamboo-framed giant kite being flown at a festival in western Japan crashed on a crowd of spectators, injuring four people, including a small boy and an elderly man. The kite, flown at a park in Higashiomi, Shiga Prefecture, on Sunday, was about the size of 100 “tatami” mats (Japanese floor mats), measuring 13 metres by 12 metres and weighed 700 kilogrammes, according to festival organisers.
A 73-year-old man was severely injured, while a 7-year-old boy and two other people sustained injuries, the fire department was quoted as saying by Kyodo news agency.
The kite was at a height of around 200 metres when it suddenly plunged from the sky and crashed into the crowd, media reports said. Police launched an investigation into the case on suspicion of professional negligence.
A local weather observatory said it had issued a strong wind warning for some parts of Shiga including Higashiomi in the early afternoon, around the same time as the accident.
Higashiomi is known for large kites and the festival is held every year. (PTI)
