Latest news with #rescueOperation
The Independent
3 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Dr Michael Mosley's widow reveals final moments before he died in first interview
Dr Michael Mosley 's widow has revealed the final moments before his death. The TV doctor and nutritionist, 67, was found dead on the Greek island of Symi after a four-day rescue operation last summer. In her first interview since her husband's death, Dr Clare Bailey Mosley has now recounted the events of the tragic holiday from which the 67-year-old never returned. The couple arrived in Symi for the week-long trip with friends on 4 June 2024. She told MailOnline: 'We'd only been there for half a day before it happened.' She said they were relaxing on the beach and enjoying the occasional dip in the sea and a coffee. 'Typically, Michael got bored,' she added. 'He wasn't enjoying his book and he doesn't really like lying on beaches, so he said: 'I'm going exploring. I'm off for a walk.' He agreed to meet us back at our friends' villa. 'I gave him my litre bottle of water and in his rather eccentric way, he had an umbrella to shield him from the sun. It was 1.30pm and he was given instructions on where to walk. 'He set off at a good pace, his rucksack on his back, up a steep hill. He hadn't brought his phone because he didn't want to risk it getting wet on the boat.' Dr Bailey Mosley went back to the villa with their friends after enjoying an afternoon at the beach, but started to get concerned where her husband had gone. She told the publication: 'Feeling things weren't right, we went to the police station and reported him missing. The police said: 'We can't do anything about it until he's been gone for 48 hours.' I said: 'What, in this heat?' It was 40 degrees, the hottest day for decades.' After she pushed them hard they agreed to send out a local search and rescue team. Dr Bailey Mosley then got in touch with the British consulate in Athens and also put an appeal out on the Symi social media page. She said: 'And it suddenly went 'whoosh' and local people turned out in force to search.' She said she also went out to look for her husband herself, adding: 'I spent a couple of hours walking along the coast and through trees and gorse calling his name. Every time I met someone, I asked: 'Have you seen him?' 'Then it got dark. It became devastatingly obvious something had gone terribly wrong.' Dr Bailey Mosley said she spent the first night curled up in bed crying. Then she was up before dawn and searching for her husband again. They feared he'd collapsed and fallen over something, and kept looking. But they found nothing. The Mosley children arrived that evening and later joined the search. Dr Bailey Mosley said: 'Extra plates were laid at the table – our friends were just so calm and supportive. They held us all together. 'There was this extraordinarily close, intimate sharing of agony, of tears and laughter – because they are closely aligned – and it was as if we were in a capsule, surrounded by a kind of magical cordon that gave us a sense of safety in impossible circumstances.' Outlandish stories about what might have happened to her husband began circulating at that time, such as a suggestion he had been abducted, and a similar-looking man spotted on CCTV. She said: 'I was naively optimistic. I think I was in denial. I remember sitting on the balcony watching the helicopters go round and round and still thinking: 'One of them will find him.'' Then, four days after Dr Mosley had gone missing, his body was found. The island's mayor and a British TV crew were out in a boat on 9 June when they spotted him just a few hundred metres from the beach bar at Agia Marina. Later, it emerged that Dr Mosley had missed his turn-off and fallen down the rocky mountain path, dying just two hours after leaving his wife at St Nicholas beach. Dr Mosley was known for popularising the 5:2 diet, a form of intermittent fasting, through his book The Fast Diet, as well as his documentaries on the BBC. His family has since set up a health research project to honour his memory. A new clinical research fellowship will be established in partnership with King's College London and the Chronic Disease Research Foundation (CDRF) to help improve the nation's metabolic health. Dr Bailey Mosley said: 'Michael was most proud of the work that he did in helping people to improve their metabolic health. 'It is increasingly clear that improving metabolic health decreases your risk of multiple chronic conditions, including type 2 diabetes, reducing blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, dementia, cancer and more. 'The Mosley family are thrilled that this fellowship will continue in his name to improve so many people's lives.'
The Independent
6 days ago
- Climate
- The Independent
Man remains missing after a Swiss glacier collapsed and destroyed 90% of an Alpine village
A 64-year-old man remained missing Thursday after a huge mass of rock and ice from a glacier crashed down a Swiss mountainside the day before. The landslide sent plumes of dust skyward and coated with mud nearly all of an Alpine village that authorities had evacuated earlier this month as a precaution. State Councilor Stéphane Ganzer told Radio Télévision Suisse that 90% of the village was destroyed. The Cantonal Police of Valais said that a search and rescue operation was underway for the man, whose name wasn't made public, and it involved a drone with a thermal camera. The regional government said in a statement that a large chunk of the Birch Glacier above the village had broken off, causing the landslide, which also buried the nearby Lonza River bed, raising the possibility of dammed water flows. Video on social media and Swiss television showed that the mudslide near Blatten, in the southern Lötschental valley, partially submerged homes and other buildings under a mass of brownish sludge. In recent days, authorities had ordered the evacuation of about 300 people, as well as all livestock, from the village amid fears that the 1.5 million-cubic meter (52 million-cubic foot) glacier was at risk of collapse. Swiss glaciologists have repeatedly expressed concerns about a thaw in recent years — attributed in large part to global warming — that has accelerated the retreat of glaciers in Switzerland. The landlocked Alpine country has the most glaciers of any country in Europe, and saw 4% of its total glacier volume disappear in 2023. That was the second-biggest decline in a single year after a 6% drop in 2022.
Washington Post
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Venezuelan opposition figures trapped in Argentine embassy speak for first time since leaving it
CARACAS — Five Venezuelan opposition figures who had taken refuge in the Argentine embassy in Caracas for over a year appeared in public Saturday for the first time since leaving the diplomatic compound. Now in the United States, they described their flight from Venezuela as part of an 'unprecedented' and ongoing rescue operation.
The Guardian
19-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
One person dead after small boat sinks in Channel, French authorities say
One person has died after a small boat sank while trying to cross the Channel overnight, French authorities said. Sixty-two people were pulled from the water after the 'overloaded' boat broke up, the Maritime Prefect of the Channel and the North Sea said. The French assistance and rescue intervention tug (RIAS) Abeille Normandie recovered 50 people, while the RNLI recovered two people and the Border Force Ranger nine people. All those rescued were transferred to the Abeille. A French Navy helicopter assisting in the search spotted an unconscious person in the water, French authorities said. They were pulled from the water by the RNLI crews but declared dead by the medical team onboard the French tug. Among the survivors was a child and his mother who were suffering from hypothermia, who were airlifted to hospital in Boulogne-sur-Mer. The others were taken to Boulogne-sur-Mer quay and taken care of by the land rescue services. The French coastguard warned of the dangers of crossing the Channel, saying the stretch of water is one of the busiest in the world, with more than 600 merchant ships passing through every day. More than 10 people are known to have died trying to cross the Channel so far in 2025 – after what is thought to have been the deadliest such year yet in 2024. According to Home Office data, more than 10,000 people made the crossing between 1 January and 28 April – a 40% increase on the equivalent period in 2024. The government has announced measures designed to stop the crossings, mainly focusing on cracking down on people smugglers. A Home Office spokesperson said this month: 'We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security. The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay and we will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.' But for years, campaigners have stressed that it will be impossible to stop the boats without first making it possible for the people using them to arrive in the UK by regular means. Last week, the co-leader of the Green party, Carla Denyer, said: 'If there were safe routes for those seeking asylum to arrive via regular means, they would not be forced into the hands of criminal gangs. The government created such safe routes for people fleeing Ukraine. They need to offer the same to others fleeing perilous situations.' The campaign group Care4Calais has said the government 'refuses to provide safe routes, yet criminalises those who use the only routes left for them'.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Multiple injuries after Mexican navy ship collides with Brooklyn Bridge
A rescue operation is under way in New York after a Navy ship collided with the Brooklyn Bridge. The Mexican Navy ship hit the bridge at about 9pm local time on Saturday (2am GMT Sunday) during a promotional tour, the top of its mast brushing the iconic frame as the vessel sailed through the East River. Fire officials said there have been multiple injuries and a search operation has been launched following reports of people being in the water. In a scene captured in multiple eyewitness videos, three masts of the ship could be seen snapping and partially collapsing as they crashed into the deck of the bridge. The video below contains offensive language Videos showed heavy traffic on the bridge at the time of the collision. The vessel – which has a crew of 277 – then drifted towards the edge of the river as onlookers scrambled away from shore. Sydney Neidell and Lily Katz told The Associated Press they were sitting outside to watch the sunset when they saw the vessel strike the bridge and one of its masts snap. Looking closer, they saw someone dangling from high on the ship. 'We saw someone dangling, and I couldn't tell if it was just blurry or my eyes, and we were able to zoom in on our phone and there was someone dangling from the harness from the top for like at least like 15 minutes before they were able to rescue them,' Ms Katz said. They said they saw two people removed from the ship on stretchers onto smaller boats. The Mexican Navy said in a post on X that the Cuauhtemoc, an academy training vessel, was damaged in an accident with the Brooklyn Bridge that prevented it from continuing its voyage. It added that the status of personnel and material was under review by naval and local authorities, which were providing assistance. 'The Secretary of the Navy renews its commitment to the safety of personnel, transparency in its operations and excellent training for future officers of the Mexican Armada,' it said in Spanish. The Cuauhtemoc is a vessel that sails at the end of classes at the Mexican naval military school to finish cadets' training. This year it left the Mexican port of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, on April 6 with 277 people onboard, the Navy said at the time. The ship was scheduled to visit 22 ports in 15 nations, including Kingston, Jamaica; Havana, Cuba; Cozumel, Mexico; and New York. It had also planned to go to Reykjavik, Iceland; Bordeaux, Saint Malo and Dunkirk, France; and Aberdeen, Scotland, among others, for a total of 254 days — 170 at sea and 84 in port. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
