11 victims in Prague university shooting identified
Prague, Dec 23: Eleven of all the victims in the university shooting in Prague have been identified, the Czech police said. “We are still working at the scene of the shooting. Currently, we have identified 11 of the deceased and are working to confirm other identities,” the police said on Friday on social media X. The tragedy at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University has left 13 people dead and 25 others wounded before the student shooter possibly killed himself, according to the police. The police have tightened nationwide preventive measures since Friday, Xinhua news agency reported. Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan told Czech Radio on Friday that the shooting was “a terrible act, unprecedented in the history of the Czech Republic,” but with no indication of links with “international terrorism”. The police said the suspected shooter had killed his father at home outside Prague before travelling to the campus. (IANS)
Death toll in China’s quake rises to 148
Beijing, Dec 23: The death toll from the 6.2-magnitude earthquake that jolted northwest China earlier this week has risen to 148, with as many as 117 persons dead in the worst-hit Gansu province, authorities said. The quake, the worst in nine years in the region, struck midnight on December 18 at a depth of 10 kilometres. In Qinghai province, which borders Gansu, 31 people were killed in the earthquake. As of Friday, the earthquake had injured 781 people in Gansu, according to the provincial earthquake relief headquarters, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday. A total of 311 temporary relocation sites have been set up for the affected residents in Gansu, and 112,346 people relocated so far. As of now, 499 individuals have been discharged from hospital after receiving treatment, while 282 people remain hospitalised. Among them, 17 are in critical condition and 69 are severely injured. Monday night’s quake was China’s deadliest since an earthquake killed 617 people in Yunnan province in 2014. (PTI)
Bomb found in train at Karachi Railway Station
Karachi, Dec 23: A bag containing an improvised explosive device) was recovered by the police from a train at the Cantonment Railway Station in Karachi, media reports said on Saturday. Police said the bomb disposal unit reached the station after receiving information about the bomb in Awam Express and defused it. According to them, the train was arriving from Peshawar to Karachi on Friday. The bomb was hidden under a seat. Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) senior officer Raja Umar Khattab said the attempt to sabotage could have been done by a separatist group. According to the bomb disposal unit, the explosive was found in a black and red coloured school bag. Director General of Police (DIG) South Syed Asad Raza said that the bomb, which weighed 5 kilograms, used 2kgs of explosives and was attached to a “time device” while a motorcycle battery was used to detonate it. The DIG said that the possible target was the north of Sindh, as the time of the bomb was set at Friday 12pm and the train was near Sukkur-Rohri Junction during that time. (PTI)
