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Explosions, fires on cargo ship off India's Kerala coast

Explosions, fires on cargo ship off India's Kerala coast

Reuters9 hours ago

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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At least 5 killed as passengers fall off overcrowded train in India
At least 5 killed as passengers fall off overcrowded train in India

The Independent

time9 hours ago

  • The Independent

At least 5 killed as passengers fall off overcrowded train in India

At least five people died and seven others were injured when commuters fell from an overcrowded local train near India's Mumbai city, officials said. The incident occurred as two fast trains passed each other near Mumbra station, around 30 km north-east of central Mumbai in the state of Maharashtra. The victims were travelling on a long-distance express train bound for Kasara, a town on the city's outskirts, according to officials. The train departed on Monday morning from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), one of the world's busiest railway stations. According to witnesses cited by The Indian Express, the incident occurred when passengers hanging from the open doorways of the Pushpak Express collided with others doing the same on a train approaching from the opposite direction. 'We received the information by 9.15 am and rushed to the spot to find about seven people lying injured, and at least five dead,' Anil Shinde, Senior Police Inspector at Mumbra police station, said. 'The injured and the deceased were rushed to the nearby Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Kalwa. Four of the injured people went to Jupiter Hospital by themselves.' Maharashtra 's chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said the incident as 'extremely unfortunate'. 'The incident in which a total of eight passengers fell from a local train between Diva and Mumbra stations, resulting in some fatalities, is extremely unfortunate. I offer my heartfelt condolences to the deceased,' Mr Fadnavis said in a statement. 'The local administration is coordinating efforts on the ground. I pray to the Almighty for the swift recovery of the injured. The railway department has initiated an investigation to determine the exact cause of the incident.' In response to the incident, the Railway Board has announced immediate safety upgrades for Mumbai's suburban train network. 'All rakes under manufacturing for Mumbai Suburban will have automatic door closer facilities. All rakes in service will be redesigned and door closure facilities will be provided,' said Dilip Kumar, executive director (Information & Publicity) of the Railway Board. Harshwardhan Sapkal, president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee, an opposition party, said the government was responsible for the accident. 'These deaths are not by accident. These people became victims at the hands of the government. For the past 11 years, the people of Maharashtra and Mumbai have been listening to empty promises about improved infrastructure and smoother commutes for Mumbaikars,' he said. The Central Railway is investigating and helping coordinate emergency response. Crowd‑control engineers have flagged footboard travel and overcrowding as recurring dangers, and authorities are urging commuters to avoid hanging on footboards on moving trains. Mumbai's suburban railway network is one of the busiest in the world, carrying over seven million passengers each day. Trains run with open doorways, and overcrowding often forces commuters to stand or hang from the footboards – a common but hazardous practice during peak hours.

Explosions, fires on cargo ship off India's Kerala coast
Explosions, fires on cargo ship off India's Kerala coast

Reuters

time9 hours ago

  • Reuters

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.

‘This Dutch oven keeps my mother's memory alive': readers' kitchen treasures
‘This Dutch oven keeps my mother's memory alive': readers' kitchen treasures

The Guardian

time10 hours ago

  • The Guardian

‘This Dutch oven keeps my mother's memory alive': readers' kitchen treasures

A few weeks ago, Bee Wilson wrote about how people sometimes invest kitchen items with strong meanings as they pass through generations. Here, four readers share stories of such treasured heirlooms, from copper pots from India to a cast-iron spatula from Italy. Priya Deshingkar, Brighton and Hove This handmade, hammered copper pot belonged to my grandmother on my father's side and was probably made for her by the local coppersmith in her village in southern Maharashtra in the 1920s. Shirol, which is now a town, is around 1,000 miles (1,705km) from Delhi, where I lived with my parents. We sometimes visited for our summer holidays in the 70s, which took at least two days by train. The pace of life there was slow. Back then it was routine to re-tin the inside of pots and pans because you couldn't cook anything acidic in copper. Travelling kalaiwallahs, as they were called, would come around to do it every couple of months or so. At that time, the tinning of copper (kalai) was still common in India, even during my childhood. Now they've mostly disappeared and you only get a few left in every city as everyone is using aluminium or stainless steel. I haven't figured out how to tin here in the UK, so for now I can only use the pot for non-acidic foods. Tamarind, tomato or lime would eat away the copper and produce a toxic compound. I use it for a typically Maharashtrian dish my grandmother used to make called bharli vangi – aubergines stuffed with a mixture of spices and ground roasted peanuts, cooked with coriander and green chilies, and so on. Cooking with it reminds me of her and the life she lived. Despite coming from a well-to-do family, she was married at 14 and spent the best part of her youth toiling away and bringing up five children. She was a voracious reader and a thinker. Whenever she visited us in Delhi, my mother supplied her with reading material. The most common local language in Delhi is Hindi, but my grandmother read only in Marathi (the predominant language in Maharashtra), so my mother had to go to libraries and friends' houses to find stacks of books. She got through so many that my mother got fed up, saying: 'How much does this woman read?' I often think about how different my grandmother's life might have been had she had the chance to pursue a career of her choice. After my grandmother died in 1975, the pot travelled to my parents' house in Delhi, where it was until I brought it with me to the UK in the mid-1980s. The pot sits proudly in my kitchen, waiting to receive another coating of tin. I will pass it on to my daughters and hope that it continues to keep memories alive in my family. Thomas Pickett, Santa Cruz in California, US When my mother died in 1987, at the age of 56, it was mostly junk that she left behind. She was too busy living to accumulate anything of much value. We were left with boxes of cooking utensils, camping gear, clothes and books. We sat among the tools of her life stunned that she was gone for ever. Mom was not terribly attached to the material aspects of life; she was more attached to people, to laughter and argument. I looked over the boxes for something that would keep her memory alive for me, and lifted out her old Wagner drip-drop baster Dutch oven. When cooking, she would start by opening the pot cupboard. It usually came with a string of expletives as most of the pots fell off the shelf at once. She'd lift the Dutchy's substantial weight on to the counter, get a cutting board, a knife and a cookbook and start chopping. She'd cook something up for anyone who was home and would open a bottle of wine and share conversation, stories and laughter. The history of my mother's life and her spirit was represented in that cast-iron pot. I'm a retired chef, and most cooks understand cast iron's absorptive nature and its ability to retain an oily, non-stick finish. For me, Mom's old Dutch oven not only had a well-oiled surface, it had the seasonings of her life. I have used it to cook decades of comfort food for my family. Our kids have left the nest and in their absence I've found Mom's pot wants to travel. Sometimes more than once a week, it's been sent full of steaming-hot food to friends' homes. Friends with the flu, friends living alone with memories of spouses lost to old age, or struggling with cancer who might like a friendly face and a shared meal. Riccardina Burdo, London The spatula, or rasaul, I use to shape orecchiette pasta was made in my home town of Andria, southern Italy, by local blacksmiths using wrought iron, a material chosen for its strength and longevity. The spatula is perfectly balanced: lightweight and easy to handle, with a rounded, non-sharp edge – ideal for shaping pasta without cutting it. This tool is essential for making orecchiette from small cylinders of pasta. The rasaul is not only key to getting the right look, it is essential for the right texture that defines true orecchiette. This one belonged to my grandmother. I learned to make orecchiette as a child, sitting next to her and my mother in the kitchen. They were so good I'd even eat some of them raw. I still use it, not out of nostalgia but because it is simply irreplaceable. While many in southern Italy now use a kitchen knife, I have never stopped using this tool, which allows me to shape orecchiette just as they used to be made. Every time I hold it, I feel a direct connection with my roots and with the generations of women in my family who shaped pasta on wooden cutting boards in warm and lively kitchens. I have a three-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter and she's already started making orecchiette with me. She's getting the gist – and of course she's always asking if she can eat them raw, too. Jean Baxter, Leicester When I got married in 1974, at the age of 19, my mum and dad gave me some things to start myself up. One of them was this plain, stainless steel dish, which my dad made. He worked for a company in Birmingham that made high-end, ornate gallery trays – but their bread and butter was the stainless steel serving dishes used by the curry and Balti restaurant trade. The company had a problem with the dish's curled rim, which would crease as it came off the jig – the tool holding components in place – creating lots of rejects. My dad redesigned the jig to make a perfect finish, and he brought home a couple of the prototypes he had made. They popped out thousands and thousands; we'd see them in Indian restaurants all the time. My dad was very clever, polishing off the Guardian cryptic crossword in less than 10 minutes most days. I'm still using his dish several times a week, 50 years and three marriages later. For me, it is a testament to my wonderfully funny, innovative, loving dad and it will be left to the grandchild who likes cooking the most.

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