Daily News Online
   

Saturday, 4 December 2010

Home

 | SHARE MARKET  | EXCHANGE RATE  | TRADING  | OTHER PUBLICATIONS   | ARCHIVES | 

dailynews
 ONLINE


OTHER PUBLICATIONS


OTHER LINKS

Marriage Proposals
Classified
Government Gazette

Israel fire kills 40

ISRAEL: A huge fire killed 40 people, most of them prison guards, when it tore through a forest near Haifa in northern Israel Thursday, prompting urgent calls for international help to tackle the blaze.

Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulance service confirmed it had recovered the bodies of 40 people who died in the inferno, the worst blaze in Israel’s 62-year history.

“Most of the dead were on board the bus,” MDA spokesman Zachi Heller said, referring to a coach which was carrying prison guards who had been en route to evacuate prisoners from Damon jail in the middle of the Carmel national park.

Rescue workers were still searching for an unspecified number of people, among them at least two police officers listed as missing, presumed dead.

A police source earlier told AFP all the dead were prison guards who had been on board the bus. Haifa’s police chief, who had been driving in a police vehicle next to the bus, was critically injured, medical and police sources said.

Shortly after midnight, police said strong winds had caused the fire to reach the southern part of Haifa, Israel’s third largest city, with a population of more than 265,000 people.

“Stronger winds mean we have started evacuating the southern Deniya neighbourhood,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

More than 12,000 people had already been evacuated from the towns and villages across the area, as well as from three prisons and a hospital south of the city, he said.

Twelve hours after the fire broke out, it was still raging out of control despite intensive efforts to control it, with fire officials saying the inferno had incinerated at least 8,000 dunams (2,000 acres, 800 hectares) of land.

“It’s very big, it’s now on the west side of the Carmel mountains,” fire service spokesman Yoram Levy told AFP. “It’s spreading.” HAIFA, Friday, AFP

EMAIL |   PRINTABLE VIEW | FEEDBACK

www.lanka.info
www.apiwenuwenapi.co.uk
LANKAPUVATH - National News Agency of Sri Lanka
www.army.lk
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL)
www.news.lk
www.defence.lk
Donate Now | defence.lk

| News | Editorial | Business | Features | Political | Security | Sport | World | Letters | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House Copyright © 2010 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.

Comments and suggestions to : Web Editor