Ganesh idol immersion: Seven die in Maharashtra and MP
Mumbai/Bhopal (PTI): Ganesh festival culminated on a teary note for lakhs of devotees who bid farewell to the adorable elephant-headed god they consecrated and worshipped for ten days, while at least seven persons died in various incidents, including drowning, after immersing idols in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
In Maharashtra, four persons drowned and 13 went missing in various water bodies in Thane, Pune, Nanded, Nashik, Jalgaon, and Amravati districts, officials said on Sunday.
In Mumbai city, where immersion processions extend several hours, a man died of electrocution and five other individuals sustained injuries, civic officials said.
The incident occurred on Khairani Road in the Sakinaka area on Sunday morning when a Ganesh idol came into contact with a hanging electric wire.
In Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh, two teenage boys drowned after falling into a stream during the immersion of an idol of Lord Ganesh, police said on Sunday.
The boys drowned after falling into a stream during the immersion of an idol of Lord Ganesh in Ghatkheda village in Madhya Pradesh's Raisen district on Saturday night, police said.
Thousands of devotees gathered at Girgaon Chowpatty in Mumbai amid rain on Sunday morning to bid farewell to the iconic Lalbaugcha Raja and other idols of the elephant-headed deity, marking the culmination of the 10-day festival.
In Palghar district, neighbouring Mumbai, three men who were swept away in a creek during Ganpati idol immersion were saved with the help of a Ro-Ro boat after a quick alert from maritime authorities, officials said on Sunday.
The incident took place at around 3 pm on Saturday at Narangi jetty in Virar (West), they said.
Meanwhile, the immersion of iconic Lalbaugcha Raja idol has been delayed by several hours and is expected to conclude around 11 pm due to weather conditions and technical issues.
The idol was shifted onto a raft on Sunday afternoon after delays since morning due to high tide and technical challenges, officials said.
Generally, the Lalbaugcha Raja idol is immersed in the Arabian Sea off Girgaon Chowpatty in south Mumbai before 9 am.
The idol was moved to a mechanised raft, following several failed attempts, more than eight hours after it arrived at Girgaon Chowpatty and over 28 hours after its grand procession began from Lalbaug on Saturday afternoon.
"The idol was finally moved from its platform onto a newly constructed raft at 4:45pm with the help of hundreds of volunteers and fishermen amidst a sea of onlookers," an official said.
Lalbaugcha Raja is not just the most patronised idol during the 10-day festival, but its immersion is also an unmissable segment for thousands of devotees, who throng the chowpatty from just past midnight waiting for its arrival by sunrise after winding through jampacked streets of central and south Mumbai.
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Media dinner shooting suspect wrote about targeting of administration officials, Trump says
Washington (AP): The man accused of trying to storm the ballroom at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner with guns and knives had written about targeting Trump administration officials, and his family raised concerns with law enforcement before the event, President Donald Trump said Sunday in an interview on Fox News Channel.
The accused gunman's family had alerted police in Connecticut, Trump said, revealing new details about a chaotic encounter that disrupted one of Washington's glitziest annual events the night before.
The suspect, identified by law enforcement officials as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was expected to face criminal charges on Monday from the Justice Department, whose acting leader, Todd Blanche, said the suspect travelled by train from California and checked in as a guest days earlier at the Washington hotel where the Saturday night gala dinner was held with its typically tight security.
Law enforcement officials who have interviewed Allen's relatives, examined the gunman's electronic devices and his writings preliminarily believe he intended to target administration members in attendance at the dinner.
He attempted to charge into the cavernous ballroom at the Washington Hilton but was tackled to the ground in a violent scene that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being hurried off the stage and guests ducking for cover beneath their tables.
“It does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,” Blanche told NBC's “Meet the Press.”
The suspect is believed to have purchased the two firearms he carried within the last couple of years, Blanche said. He is not being cooperative and is expected to face multiple charges on Monday.
Video posted by Trump showed the suspect running past security barricades as Secret Service agents ran toward him. One officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest but was recovering, officials said. The gunman was taken into custody and was not injured, but was being evaluated at a hospital, police said.
“He failed,” Blanche said on CBS's “Face the Nation.” “Law enforcement did their jobs.”
Authorities believe the suspect fired the shot that hit the Secret Service officer, who is expected to make a full recovery, Blanche said.
“He's going to be great, he's going to be fine, and thank God he was wearing a bulletproof vest,” Blanche said Sunday on ABC's “This Week.”
Social media posts that appear to match the suspect show he is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer.
A May 2025 profile photo of Allen appears to match the appearance of the man in a photo of the alleged attacker being taken into custody that was posted Saturday night by Trump.
The photo, posted to the social networking site LinkedIn, shows him in a cap and gown after graduating with a master's degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Allen earned a bachelor's degree in 2017 in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He listed his involvement there in a Christian student fellowship and a campus group that battled with Nerf guns.
The shooting at the security barricades happened minutes after the event got underway.
The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the room as guests ducked under tables by the hundreds. Gasps echoed through the ballroom as guests realised something was happening. Hundreds of journalists immediately got on phones to call in information.
“Out of the way, sir!” someone yelled. Others yelled to duck. From one corner, a “God Bless America” chant began as the president was escorted offstage. Outside the hotel, members of the National Guard and other authorities flooded the area as helicopters circled overhead.
After an initial attempt to resume the event, it was scrapped for the night and will be rescheduled.
Trump was unusually conciliatory after what he saw as a third attempt on his life in less than two years. He suggested that his personal politics had made him a repeated target, but he also called for unity and bipartisan healing in an increasingly violent world.
“It's always shocking when something like this happens. Happened to me, a little bit. And that never changes,” Trump told reporters in a hastily organised news conference at the White House late Saturday.
