Page 29 - bon-dia-aruba-20210527

A29
world news Diahuebs 27 Mei 2021

3 arrested in Italy funicular crash; clamp deactivated brake

(AP) — Police arrested clamp was still in place on
three people Wednesday Bossi said it still wasn’t clear the brake Sunday morning,
in the cable car disas- why the lead cable snapped or Cicognani said, citing infor-
ter that killed 14 people whether it was related to the mation gleaned from the sus-
in northern Italy, saying brake problem. But she said pects themselves.
workers placed a clamp that the intentional deactiva-
on the emergency brake tion of the brake, done sev- “Because of a malfunction,
to deactivate it as a patch- eral times over recent weeks the brake was continuing to
work repair - one that for a persistent problem, pre- engage even when it wasn’t
prevented the brake from vented the brake from doing supposed to,” Cicognani
engaging when the lead its job. told Sky TG24. “To prevent
cable snapped. the cabin from halting while
After the lead cable broke transporting passengers, they
The revelations, obtained Sunday, the cabin reeled back chose to not remove the
during an overnight police down the line until it hit the dispositive that blocked the
interrogation of the suspects, pylon and pulled off entirely. emergency brake.
turned the horror of Sun- It crashed to the ground and
day’s disaster into outrage, rolled over down the moun- “In this way, the brake town of Stresa at the foot of The developments in the in-
given the tragedy appeared to tainside until it came to rest couldn’t function, and this Mottarone was still recover- vestigation came as doctors
have been entirely prevent- against some trees. Fourteen brought about the fact that ing from the trauma of Sun- at Turin’s Regina Margherita
able. people were killed; the lone when the cable broke, the day’s disaster, “is another pediatric hospital reported
survivor, a 5-year-old boy, re- cabin fell backwards,” he said. blow,” news reports quoted that the lone survivor of the
Prosecutor Olimpia Bossi mains hospitalized. Stresa Mayor Marcella Sev- disaster, 5-year-old Eitan
hypothesized that the opera- Sky and the LaPresse news erino as saying. Biran, had begun to open
tors of the sightseeing funic- Carabinieri Lt. Col. Alberto agency identified the three his eyes after they gradually
ular, which had reopened af- Cicognani said at least one people arrested as the owner The investigation was con- brought him out of sedation.
ter a wintertime COVID-19 of the three people ques- of the cable car service, the tinuing, but the mayor of the
closure, used the jerry-rigged tioned overnight admitted to director of the lift and the hometown of one of the vic- Biran suffered several broken
clamp to avoid having to shut what happened. He said the service chief. tims, Serena Cosentino, an- bones in the crash, which
the attraction down for the fork-shaped clamp had been nounced that the city would killed his parents, younger
more extensive, “radical” re- placed on the emergency Bossi, the Verbania prosecu- pursue legal action against brother and great-grandpar-
pairs that were necessary. brake to deactivate it because tor heading the investigation, those responsible. The may- ents. An aunt who was not in
the brake was engaging spon- said the deactivation of the or said the city of Diamonte, the cable car was with him at
“We arrested three people taneously and preventing the brake was clearly designed in southern Calabria, would the hospital.
who it turns out were di- funicular from working. as a stop-gap measure to al- present itself as an injured
rectly involved in a concrete low the funicular to continue party in the civil portion of The Israeli family had been
fact: The emergency brake The cable car line reopened operating. She told reporters any possible prosecution. living in Italy and on Wednes-
mechanism of the cabin that from lockdown April 26 and that investigators think it was day, members of the area’s
fell onto the Mottarone slope was bringing sightseers to the done with “the full knowl- “The news, unfortunately, is Jewish community attended
was manipulated,” Bossi told top of the Mottarone peak edge” of the cable car com- showing a broad picture of a prayer ceremony for the
reporters in Verbania, adding overlooking Lake Maggiore pany’s owners. responsibility and omissive victims before their remains
that the severity of the disas- on the first sunny Sunday guilt,” Mayor Ernesto Mago- were transported back to Is-
ter warranted their detention. since then. The jerry-rigged The development, while the rno said in a statement. rael for burial.

Cyclone lashes India, Bangladesh; 6 dead, 1.1M evacuate

(AP) — Heavy rain and a the report. In India, television images (13 feet) were forecast. ter Response Force. The air
high tide lashed parts of showed knee-deep water force and navy were also on
eastern India and neigh- The “very severe cyclonic flooding the beachfront and Kolkata and Bhubaneshwar standby.
boring Bangladesh on storm” packed sustained other areas of Digha, a re- airports were shut and train
Wednesday as a cyclone winds of 130-140 kilometers sort town in West Bengal. services canceled. Fishing A year ago, the most power-
pushed ashore in an area (up to 87 miles) per hour and Wind gusts whipped palm trawlers and boats were told ful cyclone in more than a
where more than 1.1 mil- gusts of up to 155 kph (97 trees back and forth, and wa- to take shelter. decade hit eastern India and
lion people were evacu- mph) when it made land- ter overflowed several river killed nearly 100 people.
ated during a devastating fall, the India Meteorological banks. The cyclone, coming amid
coronavirus outbreak. At Department said. With the a coronavirus surge, com- “We haven’t been able to
least six people were re- storm now almost fully on West Bengal state’s top plicates India’s efforts to fix the damage to our home
ported dead. land, winds were expected to elected official, Mamata Ba- deal with both after another from the last cyclone. Now
weaken. nerjee, told reporters that storm, Cyclone Tauktae, hit another cyclone is coming,
Cyclone Yaas had already 20,000 mud huts and tem- India’s west coast last week how will we stay here?” said
caused two deaths and dam- In Bangladesh, thousands of porary shelters for the poor and killed more than 140 Samitri, who uses only one
aged homes as heavy rain people in 200 villages were have been damaged along the people. name.
pounded Odisha and West marooned as their homes, coast.
Bengal states before it made shops and farms were flood- Odisha’s chief minister, Some of the deadliest tropical
landfall in the late morning. ed by tidal surges. On Tuesday, a tornado Naveen Patnaik, appealed cyclones on record have oc-
Another person died in a snapped electricity lines that to people in shelters to wear curred in the Bay of Bengal.
house collapse in West Ben- In southern Patuakhali dis- electrocuted two people and double masks and maintain A 1999 super cyclone killed
gal state on Wednesday, said trict, more than 20 villages damaged 40 houses, Banerjee social distancing. “We have around 10,000 people and
the state’s top elected official, in Rangabali went underwa- said. to face both the challenges si- devastated large parts of Odi-
Mamata Banerjee. The Press ter after two river embank- multaneously,” Patnaik said. sha. Due to improved fore-
Trust of India news agency ments were washed away, More than 17 centimeters casts and better relief coor-
said two people were killed said Mashfaqur Rahman, the (6.5 inches) of rain have Thousands of emergency dination, the death toll from
when they were hit by up- area’s top administrator. He fallen in the Chandabali and personnel have been de- Cyclone Phailin, an equally
rooted trees and another per- said at least 15,000 people Paradip regions of Odisha ployed to help with evacua- intense storm in 2013, was
son died in a house collapse had taken refuge in cyclone state since Tuesday, the me- tions and rescue operations, less than 50, according to the
in Odisha state. There was shelters. teorological department said. said S.N. Pradhan, director World Meteorological Orga-
no official confirmation of Tidal waves of up to 4 meters of India’s National Disas- nization.