Death toll from floods and landslides rises to 56 in Sri Lanka
Colombo (PTI): The death toll due to floods and landslides has risen to 56 and 21 remain missing in Sri Lanka as it announced a public holiday on Friday other than for those involved in essential services.
At least 46 deaths have been recorded within the past 72 hours as adverse weather conditions continue to affect the island, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said.
In view of the emergency situation, the government declared Friday as a public holiday other than for those involved in essential services.
Disaster management officials said that 43,991 people from 12,313 families have been affected by the extreme weather conditions.
Meanwhile, cyclonic storm Ditwah is located near Sri Lanka’s eastern district of Trincomalee, the meteorology department announced on Friday morning.
Ditwah was centred about 50 km south of Trincomalee and was seen to be moving north and northwestwards.
Heavy showers, thunderstorms and strong winds will continue island-wide, with very heavy rainfall above 200 mm expected in several provinces, and up to 150 mm in areas, including Trincomalee in the east, Badulla in central Galle and Matara in the southern province, the weather bureau said.
Winds of 60-70 kmph, gusting up to 80-90 kmph, are likely across much of the country.
SriLankan Airlines said several inbound planes had been diverted to Kochi and Trivandrum in India and the Mattala airport in the southern province.
The government is considering making an international appeal for help at a meeting to be convened by Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya later in the day, sources said.
The railway department said all services have been suspended until further notice from 6 am today.
In the central province town of Gampola, the railway station was completely submerged with several carriages trapped underwater, officials said.
The risk of floods has increased further due to the opening of spill gates at all of the reservoirs throughout the island.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
