Foreign News
Six people shot, one fatally, on first day of school in Iowa
A student shot six people, one of them fatally, at a high school in the US state of Iowa before taking his own life on the first day back from holiday break, police said.
A “pretty rudimentary” improvised explosive device was found by investigators at Perry High School, police said, and rendered safe.
Five of those shot were students and one is a school administrator. The student that died was in sixth-grade, which is for 11 or 12-year-olds.
Reports of an active shooter came in at 07:37 local time (13:37 GMT) and the first officer reached the scene within minutes, police said. Speaking to reporters after the shooting, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Assistant Director Mitch Mortvedt said that officers responding to the scene quickly found what they determined to be the suspect with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The suspect was later identified as Dylan Butler, a 17-year-old student. He was armed with a pump-action shotgun and a small calibre-handgun, according to police. Mr Mortvedt also said that the suspect had “made a number of social media posts in and around the time of the shooting.” Of the injured, one was in a critical condition and four were stable, Mr Mortvedt added.
Earlier in the day, Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante told reporters that owing to the early hour, “luckily, there was very few students and faculty in the building, which I think contributed to a good outcome in that sense.”
Lori Meinecke, a Perry High School teacher, told a local radio station that she heard about six to seven gunshots around that time. The middle school was cleared at about 08:25 local time and the high school was cleared at 08:27 local time. The two schools are on the same campus.
A local TV station spoke to Kevin Shelley, a parent of a 15-year-old, who said his son had been shot in the hallway, but would survive. Mr Shelley’s son told him he was hit in the back and had his arm grazed before running into a classroom to seek shelter with fellow students.
Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) responded. The Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation was leading the investigation.
“It is horrendously awful,” said Linda Andorf, board president for the Perry Community School District, NBC reported. “This is just disgusting. It’s terrible.” “It’s impossible to understand why anything like this happens,” Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds said at a news conference, adding that “every Iowan stands” with the victims and their families.
US President Joe Biden was briefed on the shooting and was in touch with Governor Reynold’s office, according to the White House.
The town of Perry has less than 10,000 residents and is about 40 miles (64km) north-west of Iowa’s capital, Des Moines.
The shooting comes days before the Iowa caucuses begin on 15 January, kicking off the 2024 Republican primary process.
The shooting came as one of the candidates, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, was scheduled to campaign in Perry. The event was cancelled and replaced by a prayer and discussion between Mr Ramaswamy and local residents.
(BBC)
Six police officers have been killed in Thailand after their plane crashed into the sea during a test flight for parachute training, police have said.
The small plane was seen crashing into the water at around 08:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on Friday in the Cha-am district, a coastal resort area some 130km (80 miles) southwest of Bangkok.
Royal Thai Police said in a statement on Facebook that five of the officers died at the scene, with a sixth later dying in hospital.
Authorities are examining the aircraft’s black box data recorder to determine the cause of the crash.
(BBC)
At least two dozen people have been killed after gunmen opened fire on a group of domestic tourists visiting a popular beauty spot in Indian-administered Kashmir, authorities have told the BBC.
The attack took place in Pahalgam, a picturesque town in the Himalayas often described as the “Switzerland of India”.
The region’s chief minister, Omar Abdullah, said the attack was “much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years”. Reports suggest that there are a large number of wounded, with some in critical condition.
US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and EU chief Ursula Von der Leyen were among world leaders who condemned the attacks.
“Deeply disturbing news out of Kashmir. The United States stands strong with India against Terrorism,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Von der Leyen called the Kashmir deaths a “vile terrorist attack”, while Putin expressed “sincere condolences” for the consequences of a “brutal crime”.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi – who cut short his trip to Saudi Arabia in the wake of the attack – said the perpetrators would “be brought to justice”.
“Our resolve to fight terrorism is unshakeable and it will get even stronger,” Modi wrote in a statement on X.
Tuesday’s attack is unusual in that, in three and a half decades of conflict, tourists have rarely been targeted – especially on such a scale.
Home Minister Amit Shah travelled to Srinagar, Kashmir’s largest city, on Tuesday to hold an emergency security meeting.
The region’s Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, said the army and police had been deployed to the scene.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. There has been a long-running insurgency in the Muslim-majority region since 1989, although violence has waned in recent years.
The attack took place in Baisaran, a mountain-top meadow three miles (5km) from Pahalgam.
Vehicles are unable to reach the area where the shooting occurred, Inspector General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Vidi Kumar Birdi told BBC Hindi.
A tourist from Gujarat, who was part of a group that was fired upon, said that chaos broke out after the sudden attack, and everybody started running, crying and shouting.
Video footage shared by Indian media outlets appears to show Indian troops running towards the scene of the attack, while in other footage victims can be heard saying that the gunmen had singled out non-Muslims.
Footage on social media, which has not been verified by the BBC, appears to show bodies lying on a meadow with people crying and pleading for help.
Police said multiple tourists had been taken to hospital with gunshot wounds. The area has been cordoned off and soldiers are stopping vehicles at checkpoints. A joint search operation by the Indian army and Jammu and Kashmir police is ongoing.
Several protests have been organised for Wednesday, according to Indian media.
Since the 1990s, an armed separatist insurgency against Indian rule in the region has claimed tens of thousands of lives, including those of civilians and security forces.
The Himalayan region was divided following India’s independence from Britain, partition and the creation of Pakistan in 1947.
The two uclear armed states both claim the region in its entirety and have fought two wars and a limited conflict over it in the decades since.
Some 500,000 Indian soldiers are permanently deployed in the territory. The government claims the security situation has improved and violence has come down since Modi revoked Kashmir’s partial autonomy in 2019, although there are still incidents of violence.
The last major attack on civilians occurred in June 2024 when nine people were killed and 33 injured after militants opened fire on a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims. In 2019, a suicide bombing in Indian administered Kashmir killed at least 46 soldiers and prompted Indian airstrikes on targets in Pakistan.
Pahalgam is a popular tourist destination, both domestically and internationally, and in recent years the government has attempted to encourage further tourism to the region.
Around 3.5 million tourists visited Kashmir in 2024, according to official figures.
[BBC]
Police in Ecuador say they have arrested four people in connection with an attack by gunmen at a cockfighting ring in which 12 people died.
Weapons and replica police and army uniforms were seized during police raids in the north-western Manabí province on Friday – a day after the attack in the rural community of La Valencia.
Footage of the attack shared on social media showed gunmen entering the ring and opening fire, as terrified spectators dived for cover.
Reports in local media suggested the attackers in fake military gear were members of a criminal gang whose rivals were at the cockfight.
A criminal investigation has been launched by the provincial authorities.
As many as 20 criminal gangs are believed to be operating in the Latin American country, vying for control over major drug routes.
Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa has said that about 70% of the world’s cocaine now flows through Ecuador’s ports before being shipped to the US and Europe.
The drug is smuggled into Ecuador from neighbouring Colombia and Peru – the world’s two largest producers of cocaine.
This January saw 781 murders, making it the deadliest month in recent years. Many of them were related to the illegal drug trade.
[BBC]
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