Rains wreak havoc in Makkah, Hail

[email protected] (Arab News)
May 10, 2014

Makkah_HailMakkah/Hail, May 10: Floods caused by torrential rain swept through parts of Makkah and Hail on Thursday killing two people and injuring several others.

The flooding also caused power cuts and damaged hundreds of cars across Makkah neighborhoods, according to eyewitnesses.

Thousands of Umrah pilgrims were stranded inside the Grand Mosque after Maghrib, many only able to reach their accommodation after midnight, according to eyewitnesses. Worshippers prayed Isha in the heavy rain.

The Civil Defense in Hail said five brothers driving in a four-wheel-drive vehicle tried to cross the flooded Al-Khafj Valley. The force of the water overturned their vehicle.

Maj. Nafea bin Alian Al-Makhalafa, media spokesperson of the Civil Defense in Hail, said that one brother had rescued three of his brothers. The fifth brother was trapped inside the vehicle and drowned.

Brig. Col. Saleh Al-Alyani, spokesperson for the Civil Defense in Makkah, said an African expatriate died in Mansour district when a tree fell on him. The police are investigating, he said.

Al-Alyani said the organization's operations room received 1,356 emergency calls, mostly about cars caught up in the floods, falling trees and power cuts. A special operations room has been set up in Makkah to monitor the situation and coordinate relief and evacuation efforts, he said.

The Civil Defense deployed helicopters, 23 patrols and 16 rescue teams with heavy machinery for emergency operations. It also sent 32 officers and six staff members on motorbikes to the Grand Mosque to assist pilgrims.

The Saudi Electricity Company said its engineers and technicians were monitoring the situation in Makkah.

Mohammed Abdul Raheem, a pilgrim, said. “It was extremely pleasurable to perform Tawaf amid the heavy rain and thunder.”

The courtyards of the Grand Mosque were deserted. This included the area popular with pilgrims outside King Abdulaziz Gate. There was not a single person sitting or sleeping there, said Mohammed Akbar Abubaker, who works and lives opposite the Grand Mosque in Makkah. He told Arab News that the rainfall was unusual for this time of the year.

Part of the roof of a leading hypermarket inside the Makkah Mall collapsed but no one was hurt, according to eyewitness Mohammed Hammed. He told Arab News that his friend's car was swept away by floodwaters at Souk Hijaz shopping mall on Jeddah Road.

The flooding also damaged hundreds of cars in other parts of Makkah including Sharayah, Aziziyah, Misfalah, and Otaibiah, according to residents of these areas who spoke over the phone.

The Jeddah-Makkah Expressway was briefly closed on Thursday night because of the flooding. The highway to Riyadh near Hada Mountain remained closed on Friday as a precautionary measure.

The Civil Defense warned that there was a possibility of more rain, thunder and lightning across Makkah, Jeddah and Hail, and urged the public to be alert.

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News Network
February 28,2020

The Karnataka BJP, which faced action on Twitter earlier this month over incendiary tweets, this time has passed the blame of Sangh Parivar sponsored Delhi violence to the victims.

In an insensitive tweet on Friday, it dubbed the protests against the notorious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as "fake" and added that the violence that followed was "the most well-planned assault on the Idea of India," in an apparent attempt to portray the victims as villains.

The handle, notorious for tweets targeting Muslims, blamed the clashes that erupted in Delhi between people demonstrating for and against the CAA on "so called 'Peacefuls'" - a known right-wing slur for Muslims.

Many people on social media called out the tweet for misleading people and covering up the role of Delhi BJP leader Kapil Mishra's provocative speech for triggering the violence or the failure of the Delhi Police, which reports to the former BJP chief and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in controlling the riots.

Earlier this month, the Karnataka BJP had tweeted a video of Muslim women standing in queue to vote in the Delhi elections, showing their voter ID cards, with the snarky caption: "Keep the documents safe, you will need to show them again during NPR (National Population Register) exercise."

Soon after, the party unit's Twitter handle was blocked by the social media platform for 24 hours after many accused it of encouraging Islamophobia.

NPR has been widely criticised by opposition parties as a precursor to the government's planned NRC or National Register of Citizens which intends to make Indians prove their citizenship with documents that many poor or illiterate do not possess.

Many fear that combined with the already imposed CAA - which promises citizenship to only non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh - the NRC can be used to make millions of Muslims stateless.

The government has denied the allegation and said the CAA only intends to help those who have faced religious persecution. In recent weeks, it has gone back on its rhetoric on the NRC which was announced by Amit Shah in parliament as "it will certainly happen".

The CAA, which was cleared by parliament in December, has triggered deadly protests in the country which left at least 25 dead till Sunday. Since then, at least 42 more people have been killed as large-scale violence erupted in northeast Delhi and hundreds of homes and shops have been burned to the ground.

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News Network
July 6,2020

Mandya, Jul 6: Mandya Lok Sabha MP Sumalatha Ambarish tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, July 6. Confirming the same, she tweeted, “It (test result) is positive with very mild symptoms and I have been advised home treatment,” she confirmed.

“I had developed mild symptoms of headache and throat irritation on Saturday, July 4. I decided to get myself tested as I might have been exposed to COVID-19 during the course of my constituency duties and tours. The results arrived today. It is positive with very mild symptoms and I have been advised home treatment,” she said in a tweet.

The MP sad she was going through the prescribed treatment as per her doctor’s instructions. “By God’s grace, my immunity level is strong and I am confident that I will soon get through this situation with your support,” she said, adding that she had already given the authorities the details of the persons who she might have come in contact with.

“But I would still urge those who have come in contact with me, if you have any symptoms, to get tested immediately. Let’s win the war against COVID-19,” she further said. Sumalatha had been involved in COVID-19 activities in her constituency which has recently seen a spike in the number of cases.

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News Network
July 21,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 21: The total number of Covid-19 cases in Karnataka breached the 70,000 mark on Tuesday as the state reported 3,649 fresh infections, while 61 fatalities took the death toll to 1,464, the health department said.

The day also saw 1,664 patients getting discharged after recovery. Out of 3,649 fresh cases reported on Tuesday, a whopping 1,714 were from Bengaluru urban alone. As of July 21 evening, cumulatively 71,069 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed in Karnataka, which includes 1,464 deaths and 25,459 discharges, the health department said in its bulletin.

It said that out of the 44,140 active cases, 43,557 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 583 are in Intensive Care Units.

Twenty-two out of 61 deaths reported on Tuesday are from Bengaluru urban, followed by five each from Dakshina Kannada, Mysuru and Dharwad, four each from Kolar and Belagavi, three each from Hassan, Tumakuru and Haveri, Bidar 2, and one each from Chikkaballapura, Chikkamagaluru, Chamarajanagara, Gadag and Vijayapura.

Most of the deceased either had a history of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) or Influenza-like illness (ILI). Out of 3,649 cases tested positive on Tuesday, contacts of the large number of the cases are still under tracing.

Among the districts where new cases were reported, Bengaluru urban accounted for 1,714, Ballari 193, Dakshina Kannada 149, Mysuru 135, Yadgir 117, Uttara Kannada 109, Hassan 107, Kolar 103, followed by others.

Bengaluru urban district topped the list of positive cases, with 34,943 infections, followed by Dakshina Kannada 3,829 and Kalaburagi 2,966. Among discharges Bengaluru urban was on top with 7,476 discharges, followed by Kalabuagi 1,834 and Udupi 1,731.

A total of 10,64,734 samples were tested so far, out of which 43,904 were tested on Tuesday alone, the bulletin said. It said that 19,328 of the 43,904 samples tested today were rapid antigen tests.

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