KHARTOUM: Twelve Sudanese were killed yesterday when a wall collapsed as thousands crowded to submit their applications for the annual Haj pilgrimage, witnesses said.
More than 4,000 had gathered at a government office in Gedaref town southeast of the capital Khartoum, said one witness who asked to remain anonymous.
“There was a big crowd and all of them tried to go inside to apply. As a result of this the wall came down and four people died immediately. There were four women and eight men,” the witness said.
He added that some residents shouted in anger at government officials, blaming them for forcing people into a small area.
Official television reported that 12 people died during the wall collapse.
Another witness, Ahmed Hashim, said that the victims were crushed by the exterior brick wall, a type of fence, which suddenly collapsed outside the government office.
Car bombs kill four in disputed Iraqi territory
KIRKUK, Iraq: Three car bombs, including a suicide attack, killed at least four people yesterday in disputed territory in northern Iraq where analysts fear tensions could trigger a full-blown conflict.
The unresolved row over the swathe of land, which Iraqi Kurdistan wants to incorporate into it’s three-province autonomous region over Baghdad’s objections, is cited by diplomats as among the biggest threats to Iraq’s long-term stability.
In the town of Riyadh, just west of the ethnically-mixed city of Kirkuk, three policemen were killed and 14 people were wounded when a suicide attacker set off a minibus rigged with explosives outside the town’s police headquarters, according to police Brigadier General Sarhad Qader.
Among the wounded in the attack were nine policemen, including local police chief Major Mundher Ahmed.
Another person was killed and 27 were wounded by two car bombs targeting Shia Turkmen areas of Tuz Khurmatu, another ethnically-diverse town in the disputed territory. AFP
