����ֱ��

Dhaka: When Fatema Akter went to school in the morning, she was supposed to be back home in the early afternoon. She never returned, along with at least 28 other children who were killed when a Bangladeshi military jet crashed into their classroom in Dhaka.

Bangladesh observed a day of national mourning on Tuesday, a day after the Air Force F-7 BGI aircraft went down during class hours at Milestone School and College in the capital’s Diabari area.

The jet struck the building, killing many of the children on the spot and causing fatal burn injuries to others, health authorities said, as at least 165 victims remained hospitalized.

“My niece, Fatema Akter, was a student of class three of that school. The school is actually five minutes walking from our home,” Leon Mir, a TV reporter who witnessed the crash that killed his sister’s eldest daughter, told Arab News.

“I saw a huge smoke and the roads were blocked after the plane crashed on the school. Immediately, I rushed to the school ... somehow, I managed to enter. Seeing the situation on the ground, I was lost.”

As he reached the site, he could not see Akter and started to search for her at emergency units of local hospitals. He eventually found her at the Combined Military Hospital in another part of the city.

“She died on the spot, and her body was transported to the CMH by helicopter. I first found her school ID card and later on recognized her face,” Mir said.

Bangladeshi authorities have mobilized burn specialists and pediatricians from across the country to treat patients injured in the Dhaka disaster.

Sayedur Rahman, special assistant to the government on health, told reporters that 30 patients admitted to the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery in Dhaka remain in serious condition, and at least 10 are critical. Most are students.

Rahman said that among the 31 people killed in the crash were the pilot and two teachers. One of them, Maherin Chowdhury, sustained 100 percent burns while rescuing at least 20 students from the burning primary school building.

As bereaved families began to bury their children, at least five of them were from the families of Mir’s neighbors.

“This morning, another one died at the hospital,” he said.

“Since the accident, I haven’t been able to look at my sister’s face ... it’s unimaginable — you send your child to school in the morning and receive their burnt body in the afternoon.”

MANILA: Heavy flooding inundated the Philippines’ capital on Tuesday, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee and schools and government offices to shut, while a fresh storm brewed off the coast.
At least six people have died and another six remain missing after Tropical Storm Wipha skirted the country on Friday, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
Many neighborhoods in Manila woke to find calf-deep pools of floodwater Tuesday after an overnight downpour swelled the Marikina River.
More than 23,000 people living along the riverbank were evacuated from their homes overnight and moved to schools, village halls and covered courtyards.
About 47,000 more were evacuated from across the capital’s Quezon, Pasig and Caloocan areas, as well as from the main government district.
“Usually, these people are from low-lying areas like beside creeks,” said Wilmer Tan of the Marikina rescue office, who said the river had reached 18 meters (59 feet) in height.
An elderly woman and her driver were swept down one of the swollen creeks as they attempted to cross a bridge in Caloocan, said John Paul Nietes, an emergency worker.
It was initially hoped that the pair had escaped after the car was recovered with a broken window.
But Caloocan Mayor Dale Gonzalo Malapitan announced one of the bodies had been found.
“We’ve found (the driver),” he told Manila radio station DZMM.
“The body was recovered 4.5 kilometers from where the vehicle was swept away.... They were unable to bail out.”

As floodwaters began receding in Manila by Tuesday afternoon, the national weather service said a low-pressure area off the country’s east coast had developed into a tropical depression.
While not expected to make landfall, the depression would bring continued heavy rain through the end of the week, the agency said.
Thousands of people, meanwhile, remained unable to return to their homes.
AFP journalists in Cainta, a small town on the outskirts of the capital, saw residents using styrofoam boxes and abandoned refrigerators as makeshift floatation devices to navigate the floodwaters.
Angelo Dela Cruz, 18, employed a rubber boat — one purchased in anticipation of frequent flooding — to transport rice for his aunt’s small eatery.
“Instead of using the van, we have to use the boat and push it while we wade through the flood to prevent the rice from getting wet,” he said.
At least 20 storms or typhoons strike or come near the Philippines each year, with the country’s poorest regions typically the hardest hit.
Deadly and destructive storms are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer because of climate change.
“This is hard, because if the rain will continue... the river will swell,” Manila street sweeper Avelina Lumangtad, 61, told AFP as she stood next to a flooded thoroughfare.
“The floods are dangerous.”