Hyderabad JNTU hostel horror: Rat found in chutney, video goes viral
Hyderabad: Students at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) in Hyderabad's Sultanpur were horrified to find a rat swimming in the chutney served at their hostel mess. The video, filmed by a student, quickly went viral, sparking widespread concern over the food safety at the institution. The incident occurred on Monday night at the Sultanpur JNTU College in Telangana, following recent student protests about the unsanitary conditions of their hostel food.
After the video spread online, authorities directed the district administration to submit a detailed report on the incident.
Last month, Telangana food safety officials conducted inspections at the JNTU Sultanpur campus, revealing significant violations in the canteen’s kitchen. This raid followed a similar one at JNTU Kukatpally, which also exposed poor conditions. Officials found 15 kg of maida flour infested with black beetles and 25 kg of vegetables contaminated with fungus, both of which were discarded. The storeroom was unhygienic, with rodent presence and excessive rat excreta. The kitchen, wash area, and dining area were found in unsanitary conditions. Food handlers lacked proper attire and medical records, and the RO water plant was non-operational.
In a separate incident, a lizard was found in the breakfast served to students at a girls' hostel linked to a government school in Medak district, Telangana. Seventeen students who had eaten the breakfast were taken to a primary health center, with two experiencing stomach pain being transferred to another hospital. In response, a cook and an assistant cook were terminated for negligence, and the caretaker and Special Officer of Model School Girls' Hostel received show-cause notices. The incident was discovered when a student found a lizard in the upma served for breakfast. The caretaker immediately instructed all students to stop eating and took the affected students to the health center for examination. Subsequently, 70 more students were taken to the health center for precautionary check-ups.
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At least 2 dead and 60 hurt after car drives into German Christmas market in suspected attack
Magdeburg (AP): A car plowed into a busy outdoor Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on Friday, killing at least two people and injuring at least 60 others in what authorities called a deliberate attack.
The driver was arrested at the scene shortly after the car barrelled into the market at around 7 pm, when it was teeming with holiday shoppers looking forward to the weekend.
Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect's arrest on a walkway in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone. Other officers soon arrived to take the man into custody.
The two people confirmed dead were an adult and a toddler, but officials said additional deaths could not be ruled out because 15 people had been seriously injured.
The violence shocked the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that is part of a centuries-old German tradition.
The suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who moved to Germany in 2006, Tamara Zieschang, the interior minister for the state of Saxony-Anhalt, said at a news conference. He has been practising medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Magdeburg, she said.
"As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know, there is no further danger to the city," Saxony-Anhalt's governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters. "Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many."
The violence occurred in Magdeburg, a city of about 240,000 people west of Berlin that serves as Saxony-Anhalt's capital. Friday's attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
Christmas markets are a huge part of German culture as an annual holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages and successfully exported to much of the Western world. In Berlin alone, more than 100 markets opened late last month and brought the smells of mulled wine, roasted almonds and bratwurst to the capital. Other markets abound across the country.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said late last month that there were no concrete indications of a danger to Christmas markets this year, but that it was wise to be vigilant.
Hours after Friday's tragedy, the wail of sirens clashed with the market's festive ornaments, stars and leafy garlands.
Magdeburg resident Dorin Steffen told dpa that she was at a concert in a nearby church when she heard the sirens. The cacophony was so loud "you had to assume that something terrible had happened".
She called the attack "a dark day" for the city.
"We are shaking," Steffen said. "Full of sympathy for the relatives, also in the hope that nothing has happened to our relatives, friends and acquaintances."
The attack reverberated far beyond Magdeburg, with Haseloff calling it a catastrophe for the city, state and country. He said flags would be lowered to half-staff in Saxony-Anhalt and that the federal government planned to do the same.
"It is really one of the worst things one can imagine, particularly in connection with what a Christmas market should bring," the governor said.
Chancellor OIaf Scholz posted on X: "My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives. We stand beside them and beside the people of Magdeburg."
NATO's secretary-general and the European Commission's president also expressed their condolences on X.
Magdeburg Mayor Simone Borris, who was on the verge of tears, said officials plan to arrange a memorial at the city's cathedral on Saturday.
After a soccer match on Friday evening between Bayern Munich and Leipzig, Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen asked fans at the club's stadium to observe a minute of silence.
