Teen dead, 200 still in hospital after 'colour' poisoning

March 9, 2012

mumbai


Mumbai, March 9: A 13-year-old boy died and around 200 people, mostly children, continued to be in hospital following an allergic reaction from toxic colours on Holi, police here said Friday.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has ordered a high-level probe into the incident.

Vikas Valmiki from Ghatkopar died late Thursday. He was rushed to hospital with severe symptoms of colour allergy but doctors could do little to save him, according to an official at the Dharavi police station.

Police and medical authorities have yet to identify the mystery blue colour that sparked panic and aborted Holi celebrations in the area Thursday afternoon.

Municipal Commissioner Subodh Kumar visited the victims in Sion Hospital Friday.

Chavan has directed that the report be submitted within a fortnight. The probe panel will be headed by Medical Education Secretary I.S. Chahal, and will include Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) member Milind Mhaiskar, Food & Drugs Authority commissioner Mahesh Zagde, Additional Municipal Commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar and a high-ranking police official.

Holi took a tragic turn Thursday afternoon when scores of children, mainly from Dharavi slums, Sion, Ghatkopar and surrounding areas complained of giddiness, breathlessness, vomiting, burning eyes, dehydration, low oxygen levels and skin rashes after they had played with or unknowingly consumed tiny quantities of some unknown colour.

The condition of most them is reported to be stable, police said. Preliminary investigations by the police have revealed that some poor slum kids reportedly discovered bags of blue colour lying unattended near a garbage dump in Dharavi.

Police and civic officials had issued warnings asking people to stay away from cheap and polluted Holi colours.


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Agencies
February 26,2020

Kota, Feb 26: At least 24 people died and four others sustained injuries as a private bus carrying a wedding party fell into a river on Kota–Dausa highway in Bundi district on Wednesday morning, police said.

The wedding party with 28 persons on board was headed to Sawai Madhopur from Kota early morning when the driver apparently lost balance of the bus while traversing a bridge near Papdi village under Lekhari police station limits, Lakheri Sub-Inspector Rajendra Kumar said.

The bus, subsequently, plunged into Mej river from the bridge that had no wall or railing, Kumar said.

Thirteen people died on the spot while 10 others succumbed to their injuries on way to hospital, he added.

The deaths include 11 men, 10 women and three children.

The injured were rushed to Lekhari government hospital from where the critically injured are being referred to a government hospital in Kota, the SI further said.

Most of the injured people were rescued with the help of locals in the village, he added.

Mej river is a tributary of the Chambal river in Rajasthan.

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News Network
May 21,2020

Bengaluru, May 21:Tragedy struck an elderly migrant worker who was looking forward to joining his family as he died on reaching a nearby railway station to board a Shramik Special train to his home state Madhya Pradesh, police said on Thursday.

The 69-year old man, who worked in a coffee estate in Chikkamagaluru, collapsed and died soon after getting down from a state-run KSRTC bus that brought him and others to the Chikkabanavara Railway station on Wednesday.

According to police, fellow labourers said he had been ailing for quite some time.

The cause of his death would be known only after a post-mortem, police added.

Karnataka government has been sending back thousands of migrant workers stranded in the state due to the COVID-19 lockdown by arranging the special trains.

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Agencies
May 28,2020

Mumbai, May 28: Twenty four doctors and three others staying in a south Mumbai hotel were rescued after a major fire broke out in the five-storey building, officials said on Thursday.

The BMC has arranged temporary accommodation for emergency and essential service staffers, including doctors and nurses, in various hotels and lodges in the city due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This hotel is one such facility.

The fire broke out at Hotel Fortune near Metro Cinema late Wednesday night and was brought under control after nearly three hours early Thursday, fire brigade officials said.

“The fire spread from the first to the third floor of the hotel, a fire brigade official told PTI. It was a level-2 fire and eight fire engines were rushed to the spot, he added.

The fire was confined to the electric wiring and cables in the electrical duct, false ceiling in the lobby and the common passages on the first, second and third floors of the hotel, he said.

The 24 rescued were resident doctors at a local hospital who were provided temporary accommodation in the hotel, while the three others were guests of the hotel, he said.

The fire broke out at 11 am and wasbrought under control at 1.40 am, the official said. Cooling operation is underway at the hotel, he added.

Five doctors were rescued using fire brigade ladders and breathing apparatus sets, the official said.

The cause of the blaze is not yet known, the fire brigade official said.

On April 21, a major fire broke out in a lodging room of Hotel Ripon near Mumbai Central, which was being used as a quarantine facility by the civic body.

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