Final toll from collapsed Russian building: 39 dead
Moscow, Jan 4 (AP) After three-and-a-half days of fighting a mountain of concrete, cold weather and time, rescue teams in an industrial Russian city ended a search for people who were inside an apartment building where an explosion triggered a partial collapse, giving a final death toll Thursday of 39.
The massive operation launched by the Russian Emergencies Ministry in the jumbled maze of rubble where a section of a 10-story building stood in Magnitogorsk until Monday morning combined sophisticated equipment with gruelling manual labour.
Russian officials said from the start that emergency crews were racing to reach survivors before they died of hypothermia in temperatures as low as minus 29 degrees Celsius. Supervisors ordered fans to blow warm air into the wreckage while drones, flexible ocular devices and the hands of hundreds probed for signs of life.
A search dog brought hope to the grim work Tuesday when it pointed to a place where rescue workers would hear the cries of a baby. The 10-month-old boy who was pulled out 35 hours after the building came down ended up being the only person found alive in the debris.
The child was airlifted 1400 kilometres to a top hospital in Moscow with severe injuries that included fractures, frostbite and the combination of shock and kidney damage that doctors call "crush syndrome." He was in stable condition Thursday, the Health Ministry said.
A cat was found alive on Wednesday, but that did not provide much solace as search crews discovered more and more bodies. The number of victims grew from four on Monday and kept mounting until the search ended Thursday night.
"We took out the last, the 39th body today and we guarantee that there are no more people in the building," Deputy Emergencies Minister Alexander Chuprian told reporters.
Tallies earlier in the day said 38 bodies were recovered and three building residents still were unaccounted for, suggesting as many as 41 people had been buried in the rubble. It was not immediately clear why officials ended the search when the number of casualties reached 39.
The collapse followed an explosion that officials say likely was caused by a gas leak. Explosions caused by gas leaks in poorly built and indifferently maintained buildings occur often in Russia, but the Magnitogorsk disaster claimed an unusually high number of lives.
Along with the physical demands of wrestling jagged chunks of debris and the emotional stress of a bleak job, the search teams worked around the clock with the constant worry that still-standing parts of the building would fall on them. The search had to be suspended several times while workers stabilized walls or tore away pieces that looked like they might come crashing down.
The operation "was unique in its high risk to people," Chuprian said. On Thursday, the mayor of Magnitogorsk southeast of Moscow, told journalists there was no connection between the explosion at the apartment building and the fiery explosion of a minibus on the same street a day later.
The vehicle explosion took place about 2.5 kilometres from the apartment block. Police said the minibus was carrying gas canisters but have given few other details.
But video of the burning vehicle, including some posted on YouTube by Russia's RT satellite TV channel, featured sounds resembling gunfire and an observer's voice is heard saying people are shooting assault rifles.
Unconfirmed reports have suggested the apartment blast could have been a terrorist act and that the occupants of the exploded vehicle were suspects.
"I want to say that there are no clear facts showing any kind of confirmation of what is described on the internet today," Mayor Sergei Berdnikov said of the reports, according to state news agency Tass.
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Jharkhand horror: Man kills live-in partner, chops body into 40 pieces
Ranchi (PTI): A 25-year-old man, who works as a butcher, allegedly strangled to death his live-in partner and chopped her body into 40 to 50 pieces in a forested area in Jharkhand’s Khunti district, police said on Wednesday.
The accused, identified as Naresh Bhengra, was arrested.
The matter came to light after around a fortnight after the killing when a stray dog was found with human body parts near Jordag village in Jariagarh police station on November 24.
Bhengra was in a live-in relationship with the deceased, a 24-year-old woman also from Khunti district, in Tamil Nadu for the past couple of years. Sometime back, he returned to Jharkhand, got married to another woman without telling his partner anything and went back to the southern state without his wife to join her.
"The brutal incident occurred on November 8 when they reached Khunti as the accused who had married another woman did not wish to take her home. Instead, he took her to a forest near his house at Jordag village in Jariagarh police station and chopped the body into pieces. The man has been arrested," Khunti Superintendent of Police Aman Kumar told PTI.
Inspector Ashok Singh who investigated the case said the man worked in a butcher shop in Tamil Nadu and was expert in slicing chicken.
“He admitted chopping the body parts of the woman into 40 to 50 pieces before leaving those in the forest for wild animals to feast on. The police recovered several parts on November 24 after a dog in the area was seen with a hand," Singh told PTI.
Singh said that the woman, who was unaware of his marriage, pressured him to return to Khunti. After reaching Ranchi, they boarded a train on November 24 and headed to the man's village.
"Under a plan, the man took her to Khunti in an autorickshaw near his home and asked her to wait. He returned with sharp weapons and strangulated her with her dupatta after raping her. He then cut the body into 40 to 50 pieces and left for his home to live with his wife," Singh said.
The woman, however, had informed her mother that she had boarded a train and would be living with her partner, the police officer said.
Following the recovery of body parts, a bag was also found in the forest with the murdered woman's belongings including her Aadhaar card. The mother of the woman was called at the spot and she identified her daughter's belongings.
"The mother suspected the man behind the crime who after being nabbed by the police admitted to chopping the woman into pieces," the official added.
The incident has sent shockwaves among people in the region, with the Shraddha Walker murder case of 2022 still fresh in their memory.
Walker was killed by her live-in partner who chopped her body into pieces before dumping them in the jungle in South Delhi’s Mehrauli.
