Explosions, fires on cargo ship off India's Kerala coast
KOCHI, India, June 9 (Reuters) - Multiple explosions and fires erupted on a cargo ship bound for India's financial capital Mumbai on Monday, causing 40 containers to fall into the Arabian Sea and forcing several crew members to jump overboard to escape the flames, officials said.
The Singapore-flagged WAN HAI 503 met with an accident about 144 km (90 miles) off the coast of the southern Indian state of Kerala, said Shekhar Kuriakose, secretary of the state's disaster management authority.
"According to preliminary information ... there were 22 workers on board the ship ... 18 jumped into the sea and are in rescue boats. Efforts are underway to rescue them," he said, adding that the vessel was not "currently sinking".
Pictures and videos shared by the Indian coast guard on X showed a thick plume of black smoke rising from the ship, and some containers lying open and in disarray near the point where the smoke was escaping.
"Vessel is presently on fire and adrift," a defence ministry public relations officer said on X.
Officials did not disclose the nature of the cargo in the containers, nor what caused the explosions.
A container vessel sank in another accident off Kerala last month, releasing 100 cargo containers into the Arabian Sea. The directorate general of shipping said on Friday there were no reports of oil pollution because of that incident.
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Reuters
5 hours ago
- Reuters
India attempts to tow burning ship to prevent ecological disaster, ministry says
June 11 (Reuters) - The Indian Coast Guard on Wednesday was attempting to tow a cargo ship that caught fire off the coast of the southern state of Kerala to prevent serious risk to regional shipping routes and the marine environment, India's defense ministry said in a statement.
The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘We'll have done it first': what it takes to set a new Guinness World Record
Ever since she was a little girl, Sruthy Saseendran wanted to 'achieve something remarkable' – something that would earn her a place in the record books. But growing up in what she describes as a traditional Indian family, that dream had to take a backseat to more conventional markers of success: university, marriage, career. Decades later – after she had married, become a mother and taken a job as a business analyst in Melbourne – she felt the itch return. It was time to do something for herself. So she embarked on a personal challenge: to set a Guinness World Record. Saseendran felt drawn to memory-based challenges and had long been fascinated by aviation. After a lot of research, she set her sights on creating a new world record: naming the most airports identified by International Air Transport Association code in one minute. The process of getting a new record idea approved by Guinness took her a year and three failed applications before the record book finally gave her the green light. So why not just break an existing record? 'I know how much effort and time it takes to set a record, so I really don't want to break anyone's and mortify them,' she says. 'I didn't want to hurt anyone.' Saseendran spent 18 months practising for her record attempt. She built a database of over 17,000 airport codes and assembled a training toolkit that included aviation maps, flashcards, cognitive training apps and good old-fashioned games of chess (to sharpen her focus). She'd set her alarm for 4.30am every day to practise before her infant woke up. As well as memorising codes, she had to learn to speak very quickly so she could verbally identify two airport names each second. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning On 5 December 2024, it all paid off. After one failed attempt, Saseendran created a new world record, naming 95 airport codes before the buzzer sounded. After all that groundwork, claiming her title felt like 'relief'. Saseendran's record might sound obscure, but Guinness is no stranger to niche ideas. Each year, they field around 50,000 record applications, and more than one third are new titles. Australians are among the more enthusiastic record breakers, currently ranking 12th in the world (the US and UK are equal first). For many, devising an oddly specific new record is a more achievable way into the books than running the fastest marathon or growing the world's longest fingernails. A steady stream of new records also helps to keep the pages of the hallowed Christmas gift fresh. Most of the records in the book each year are new, cosying up alongside indispensable classics such as the world's shortest woman and tallest man. New feats also replace records that have been scrapped by Guinness, such a 'longest time with a tarantula in the mouth', which might now be considered animal cruelty. Proposed records need to meet a variety of criteria to get the go-ahead, says Mark McKinley, who vets new Guinness World Record applications. Much like Smart goals, records need to be specific and measurable. You may think your baby is the world's most beautiful, McKinley says, and perhaps it is – but there's no real way to measure that. Guinness must also be able to verify each record. Not all ideas that reach McKinley's desk tick that box. 'We had an application for somebody who claimed to have only ever drunk Coca-Cola their entire life – one, it's probably unlikely that as a baby they were being bottle-fed Coke, but there's also no way of proving that,' he says. Finally: 'The record's got to be breakable,' McKinley says. That means standardised parameters – football records, for instance, must be broken with a fully inflated ball of the same size – but it also means setting the kind of challenge other people want to beat. Saseendran's record idea met all of those criteria. Memory-based records, McKinley says, are among their most popular and there's a 'huge community' of aviation enthusiasts who could be inspired to try for her title. McKinley filters through a lot of record requests and says that suggestions which appear niche at first can reveal large communities of devotees. 'When you start looking into them, you find that not only is this person wanting to do it, there's a whole subculture of people that … will want to beat it.' For instance, McKinley once received an application for the most sausages made in one minute. He was initially dubious, but says 'that record has become so popular among butchers'. Records aren't just about individual achievement. This weekend the New South Wales town of Kyogle, population 2,751, will do its darndest to set a brand new world record: the world's largest happy dance. If they get it right, it will, thinks mayor Danielle Mulholland, 'really put us on the map'. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion It was an idea Mulholland had after joking with a colleague that she'd 'do a happy dance' if she passed a course she was studying. She Googled happy dances and found there had been a mass happy dance featuring 448 participants in Singapore in 2015, but it hadn't officially been recorded by Guinness. So she decided that Kyogle, as a town, should aim to set the first official record by bringing together as many people as possible to dance at the town showgrounds. If you're wondering, a happy dance entails any kind of dance moves made to Pharrell Williams' 2014 track Happy. Those shooting for Guinness glory can choose to have reputable independent witnesses and videographers there to verify an attempt, or they can fly out official Guinness staff to oversee proceedings. The latter option comes with a price tag of £12,000 or A$24,000 – an amount that made Mulholland 'almost stroke out on the spot', especially given Kyogle is using the event to raise money for anti-domestic violence programs, so she has recruited some local lawyers to verify the size of the dancing crowd. If successful, it won't be Kyogle's first entry into the record book – a gardener from the nearby town of Knockrow grew the heaviest pumpkin in the southern hemisphere, an 867kg behemoth, for a Kyogle pumpkin competition in 2021. But creating the mass happy dance record feels extra special. 'London, Paris or New York may come along, and they may challenge the record,' Mulholland says. 'But at the end of the day, we'll have done it first.' Losing records is all part of the experience anyway. In 2018, chef Johnny Di Francesco, who runs Melbourne restaurant group Gradi, set about creating a world record for the most varieties of cheese on a single pizza. At the time, Di Francesco believed he'd be the first to set such a record, but Guinness says a German restaurant snuck in earlier that year. Di Francesco says it was a huge undertaking. Even sourcing that many varieties of cheese was challenging in Australia. Then, over six hours, Di Francesco painstakingly assembled a standard-size pizza with one gram of each variety of cheese. He 'obviously' had to recruit two professional cheesemongers to verify his cheese varieties were sufficiently distinct. It worked out – Di Francesco got the record, cramming 154 cheeses on to a classic wood-fired base. He didn't retain the title. In 2023, a team of chefs from France, a nation with the unfair advantage of being home to many more types of fromage, toppled him with a 1,001-cheese pizza. But Di Francesco is at peace with the loss. 'It's fine,' Di Francesco says. He still feels a sense of achievement for contributing to 'something that someone else wanted to succeed in'. For now, Saseendran still holds her record – but she should steel herself for challengers. McKinley says there have already been five applications to break it. Saseendran can now recite 104 airport codes in one minute – nine better than her official record – but won't be bitter if she eventually loses the title. 'I'm sure I'd be cheering them on,' she says. As she went first, 'my 'brainchild' will hold a cherished place in my heart forever'.
BBC News
a day ago
- BBC News
Man injured in suspected gas explosion at house
Update: Date: 21:30 BST Title: Where did the explosion happen? Content: Chris DoidgeBBC News, Derby Eden Street is in the Alvaston suburb of Derby, just a short distance from the district centre. The street backs on to a Lidl supermarket, from where shoppers reported hearing the explosion. The incident's just a kilometre from Rolls-Royce's Raynesway site, home to its submarines division. Police say London Road, also known as the A6, is closed which is the main road from Alvaston into the centre of Derby. Update: Date: 21:24 BST Title: Gas company Cadent at scene of blast Content: Elise ChamberlainBBC East Midlands Today A spokesperson for gas company Cadent said it was called to the scene by the fire service at about 19:40. They told the BBC: "We were there within half an hour but, as of yet, haven't been able to get access to the property because the fire service are still dealing with the fire. "We have no indication of what has caused this yet, but are assisting the fire service and once we can access the property, will do what we need to to make it safe." Update: Date: 21:18 BST Title: Fire crews at the scene Content: Laura HammondBBC News, East Midlands Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service says it has four appliances, a command unit and supporting officers at the scene. Calls regarding the suspected explosion were received at 19:24 BST, it added. Update: Date: 21:14 BST Title: 'It shook the whole house' Content: Alex ThorpBBC News, East Midlands Nancy Lehigh lives in Eden Street and said the emergency services had told residents to stay indoors. She said: "It shook the whole house. The whole street was out in seconds. It was a massive boom." Update: Date: 21:07 BST Title: Cordon now being expanded Content: Isaac AsheBBC News, East Midlands The cordon is being expanded and crowds have been moved back from the entrance to Eden Street. Police are liaising with people who are concerned for family members within the cordon. Update: Date: 21:05 BST Title: Road closures also in place Content: Laura HammondBBC News, East Midlands Eden Street, London Road and Shardlow Road are all currently closed, according to Derbyshire Police. People have been urged to avoid the area. Update: Date: 21:04 BST Title: Large cordon put in place Content: Isaac AsheBBC News, East Midlands The A6 through Alvaston is blocked both ways just off the roundabout at Raynesway, mainly by the sheer volume of emergency service vehicles. We've got fire trucks, ambulances, command units and incident response vehicles, squad cars and unmarked police cars, all parked up with blue lights. And there's a lot of members of the public stood around the precinct area at the entrance to Eden street. The side street itself is a firm no-go for anyone though as emergency services work at the scene. Update: Date: 21:01 BST Title: One man injured in gas explosion, police say Content: Laura HammondBBC News, East Midlands Derbyshire Police have confirmed that emergency services were called to a suspected gas explosion at a property in Eden Street at 19:24 BST. One man has been taken to hospital, the extent of his injuries is not yet known. Update: Date: 21:01 BST Title: Welcome to our live updates Content: Laura HammondBBC News, East Midlands Thank you for joining us for our live coverage of a suspected gas explosion at a house in Alvaston, Derby. We'll bring you all the latest as our reporters receive it.
