Published stories in Disasters & Incidents.
French winemakers in the Var region are waiting to learn whether smoke from recent wildfires has tainted grapes in the country's main rosé-producing area. Wildfires in the southeastern French region have sent thousands of people fleeing and destroyed more tha…
Firefighters battled wildfires across the Balkans on Thursday, August 6, as a heatwave was expected to peak with temperatures reaching 40C in some areas. In Serbia, a man died in a village about 80 kilometres east of Belgrade after he lost control of a fire h…
Landslides in the northern Philippines killed at least four people as heavy rain from a tropical depression hit Luzon, authorities said Thursday. In Benguet province, north of Manila, a hillside collapsed on a small restaurant on Thursday, burying three emplo…
A baby hippopotamus descended from Pablo Escobar's herd died Wednesday after being rescued in northwestern Colombia, the environmental organization Cornare said. Fishermen had found the roughly 15-day-old animal alone on a riverbank without its mother. Author…
A plane collided with an unidentified object near Germany's Leipzig airport after aborting a landing and later landed safely in Hanover, an Interior Ministry spokesman said Wednesday. The spokesman said the plane had been meant to land in Leipzig but had to a…
Floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains have killed more than 100 people across India since July, official data showed Wednesday, with thousands forced to flee flooded homes. Assam is among the hardest-hit states. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma s…
South Korea's professional baseball league has cancelled all games scheduled for August 5 and 6 during a record-setting heatwave that has sent spectators to hospital. The Korea Baseball Organization said it would call off the games until comprehensive safety…
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck off Sarangani Island in the southern Philippines on Wednesday, the United States Geological Survey said, with no tsunami warning and no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The USGS said the quake hit 32 kilometres sout…
The Eaton Fire that killed 19 people in Los Angeles County in January 2025 was caused by an electrical incident on a decommissioned Southern California Edison transmission tower, county fire officials said in a report released Tuesday. The Los Angeles County…
Italy has released 100 million euros ($115 million) to help repair damage from the July 31 earthquake in the Naples area, Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci said Tuesday. The 4.7-magnitude quake was the strongest to hit the area in 40 years. It injured…
The death toll from attempts to reach Ceuta rose to about 75 as European Union ministers backed Spain's handling of a mass migration crisis in the North African enclave. Spanish officials said Tuesday that 72,000 people entered Ceuta from Morocco last week an…
Two North African men were rescued on Tuesday, August 4, after drifting for 15 days in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Spain's Balearic Islands, Spanish authorities said. The survivors told rescuers that 17 other people who had been on their boat had…
A landslide killed 14 worshippers at an Orthodox monastery in Ethiopia's northern Amhara region, the head of the local diocese told AFP. Megabe Hadis Neka Tibeb Ababu said the landslide happened early on Monday in Sela Dingay, about 200 kilometres northeast o…
South Korea's heat-related summer death toll reached 19 on Tuesday as record-setting temperatures left residents in Seoul's affluent Gangnam district divided by access to air conditioning. Seoul was under a severe heatwave warning on Tuesday for the first tim…
Three wildfires around Spokane, Washington, had burned 10,280 acres by Tuesday, August 4, while a 37-year-old man was being held on a first-degree arson charge linked to the largest blaze. InciWeb, a federal interagency fire information system, gave the lates…
Evacuated residents near Guatemala's Fuego volcano have been told it is safe to return home after experts declared the eruption over. Guatemala's Institute of Volcanology said Wednesday that the eruption had ended after about 50 hours. Fuego, Central America'…
A forest fire in a nature reserve near Oostrum in the southeast of the Netherlands had spread to 100 hectares by Tuesday afternoon and was still not under control, provincial authorities said. The fire started around noon Monday near the village in Limburg pr…
Three lionesses at Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo have died from suspected heatstroke, and several other lions are being treated after struggling with Japan's humid summer heat, a zoo spokeswoman said Tuesday. The zoo said 10 of its 16 lions had shown symptoms…
A forest fire near Bordeaux has exposed around 400 World War II shells and ammunition pieces in the village of Le Porge, where all residents returned home on Monday after days of demining operations, local authorities said. The munitions were found in an area…
Australian fire experts say European countries facing intense wildfires can learn from Australia's Black Summer bushfires by preparing earlier, reducing fuel around communities and giving clearer warnings to the public. Australia's Black Summer bushfires from…
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck about 40 kilometres north of the Egyptian city of Suez early Monday, Egypt's National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics said, and the health ministry reported one injury. The institute said the quake hit at 3:00…
Iraqi authorities said high temperatures caused a fire at an ammunition depot at Camp Taji, a major military base north of Baghdad, on Sunday. Defence ministry spokesman Yehia Rasool said the fire broke out in a warehouse containing ammunition belonging to th…
An industrial waste warehouse fire in northeastern France briefly forced authorities to urge about 30,000 people to stay indoors on Sunday as foul smoke spread from the village of Gandrange. Local civil defence spokeswoman Geraldine Chambeaudie said the fire…
The Ozora Festival in central Hungary will end its music programmes earlier than planned after two people died, organisers said on Sunday. Police told local news site FEOL that a 45-year-old American man climbed onto a set piece around the main stage on Satur…
An Indonesia passenger ferry fire killed five people, and all survivors have been accounted for, National Search and Rescue Agency head Mohammad Syafii said Tuesday. Mohammad said the total number of passengers and crew recovered, dead or alive, matched the m…
A violent storm has battered central and southern Chile, causing flooding, leaving at least two people dead and stranding more than 2,000 people, authorities said. Deputy Interior Minister Maximo Pavez said two people in the southern Los Rios region were kill…
Two crew members were killed when two hired Bell firefighting helicopters collided while tackling a wildfire in the Psatha area west of Athens on Sunday, August 2, the Greek fire service said. Fire department communications director Vassilis Vathrakogiannis s…
Wildfires in the Spokane area of Washington state forced up to 65,000 people to evacuate and destroyed between 700 and 1,110 structures, authorities said, as firefighters worked Monday to contain the flames. Three fires had burned 8,026 acres in the area, acc…
South Korea's summer heat has killed 19 people this year, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Tuesday, as Seoul remained under the country's highest-level heat alert. The agency said 2,221 people suffered heat-related illnesses between May 15…
Chinese state media reported Sunday that the death toll from a flash flood in northwest China had risen to 25, with 23 people injured. The flood hit the Shuangshimen Scenic Area in mountainous southern Gansu on July 26. The tourist spot is popular with day ca…
Peruvian authorities are investigating why a small tourist plane crashed after taking off from Pisco airport for a flight over the Nazca Lines, killing all 13 people on board. The Cessna 208 Caravan, operated by AeroDiana, crashed on August 1 after leaving th…
France's wildfires are now under control, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Saturday, more than a week after the country's largest wildfire since 1949 broke out near Bordeaux. "Overall, the fires are now under control in our country," Lecornu told La Trib…
The death toll from the migrant rush into Spain's North African territory of Ceuta has risen by two to 80, Spanish legal authorities said Thursday. Many people drowned while trying to swim around a barrier in the Mediterranean Sea from July 30. The scenes spa…
A 4.7-magnitude earthquake in the Campi Flegrei area west of Naples injured 26 people and forced about 300 to evacuate, Italian authorities said Saturday. Italy's Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said the quake struck late Friday, July 31, at a depth o…
Greek officials and residents west of Athens began assessing damage Wednesday after a wildfire blackened more than 14,000 hectares in five days and burned homes, businesses and farmland. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was due to chair a cabinet meeting la…
Greece ordered a partial evacuation near Athens on Friday as new wildfires broke out and strong winds hampered firefighting across the country. A Civil Protection mobile alert ordered the partial evacuation of part of Haidari, a suburb about 11 kilometres wes…
El Abuelo, a centuries-old chestnut tree in Spain's Avila province, survived a recent wildfire after residents of nearby El Tiemblo helped defend the ancient woodland where it stands. The tree, estimated to be more than 500 years old, is the best-known tree i…
Greek Civil Protection ordered the partial evacuation of part of Haidari, a suburb west of Athens, on Friday after a forest fire broke out on a nearby mountain. The order was sent through an emergency mobile phone alert. Firefighters said the blaze was burnin…
Hundreds of firefighters were battling strong winds on Friday to control a wildfire in southwestern Turkey, after other wind-fuelled blazes along the Mediterranean coast were largely brought under control. Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said six fires were…
Algerian prosecutors said preliminary findings showed the driver of a bus that crashed into a ravine near Boumerdes was under the influence of drugs, in a crash that killed 28 people and injured 36 others. The public prosecutor's office in Boumerdes said the…
The body of British-Nepali climber Nirmal Purja has been taken to Broad Peak base camp after an avalanche killed members of his expedition in northern Pakistan, the Alpine Club of Pakistan said Wednesday. The club said the bodies of Purja, Chinese mountaineer…
Ukrainian firefighters joined operations Monday to fully extinguish a wildfire in France's Gironde region after a 52-hour drive, in what a local fire service official said was their first deployment in the country. Seventy firefighters arrived Sunday in a con…
A coal mine blast in southern Pakistan killed at least 34 workers, Balochistan's provincial disaster management authority said Friday, as rescuers searched for more missing miners. The explosion, suspected to have been caused by methane gas, tore through the…
Hundreds of people held a candlelight vigil in Kathmandu on Tuesday for 10 climbers killed by an avalanche on Pakistan's Broad Peak, including British-Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja and six elite Nepali guides. Buddhist monks chanted prayers as about 500 mou…
Venezuela has not released a clear missing-person count after the June 24 twin earthquakes, even as the official death toll has risen to 6,125 and families con…
A wildfire at Dunwich Heath in eastern England has grown to around 150 hectares and forced dozens of residents and visitors to evacuate, Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service said on July 30. The service said firefighters were “making good progress”, but changing w…
Volunteers are feeding pets and other animals left behind after residents fled a major wildfire in southwest France. In Lege-Cap-Ferret, west of Bordeaux, volunteers have been driving through the town with pet biscuits, grain and water for cats, dogs, rabbits…
Safari Madrid's bison kept grazing and most of its 2,000 animals remained calm as a wildfire burned near the wildlife park west of Madrid, according to park veterinarian Christian Cabrera, before the site reopened after six days of closure. Cabrera said only…
A house collapsed during heavy monsoon rains in Lahore, killing 11 people from the same family and injuring six others, a local official said Thursday. Amir Butt, the assistant commissioner in the area, said all the victims belonged to one family. Rescue serv…
George Clooney and Amal Clooney evacuated their French home near Brignoles in southeastern France after a fast-moving wildfire broke out nearby, authorities said Thursday. The couple own Domaine du Canadel, an estate near Brignoles where the fire began on Wed…
Europe's wildfires eased in parts of France and Spain on Friday, but crews were still fighting dangerous blazes in Greece, Portugal and Turkey as heat and wind kept the risk of new fires high. In southwestern France, officials said a major wildfire near Borde…
Twenty-five cats were rescued unharmed from a shopping mall in Kashima, Japan, after a deadly earthquake and a later explosion damaged the building, the operator of Cat Cafe MOFF said Thursday. The cats, including Momo, Kohaku, Tango and Shandy, were inside t…
A wildfire that started Wednesday near Fermoselle in western Spain has burned 11,000 hectares in 24 hours near the Portuguese border and forced 800 people to evacuate, officials said Thursday. Fermoselle's mayor gave the burned-area figure and told AFP the vi…
Turkish authorities said Thursday that firefighters were responding to 115 fires across the country, with 110 completely under control, as crews continued working in tourist regions including Antalya and the Dardanelles. Agriculture Minister Ibrahim Yumakli g…
Greek firefighters were still battling a wildfire on Crete on Friday after about 8,000 people were evacuated, with authorities saying conditions around Rethymno had improved but the blaze was not yet contained. A fire department spokesperson said there were s…
Five people have died after powerful wind gusts hit Rio de Janeiro and parts of Sao Paulo state, cutting power, stopping public transport and disrupting airports. In Rio de Janeiro, winds of up to 100 km/h struck just before rush hour, felling dozens of trees…
Seven people died on Wednesday when a firefighting helicopter crashed in Argentina's western San Juan province, Governor Marcelo Orrego said. The Bell 412 aircraft had been training before heading to neighbouring La Rioja province to help fight days-long fire…
Residents and workers on France's Cap Ferret peninsula have stayed despite an evacuation order as a wildfire burned a few kilometres away and temperatures neared 40C. Authorities ordered residents to leave last week as the fire moved close to the narrow strip…
Five people were injured as Turkish firefighters battled wind-driven wildfires near tourist areas on the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts on Thursday, authorities said. Authorities in Balikesir province said the injured included three firefighters, a forestry…
Three firefighters died on Wednesday as crews battled forest fires across Greece, where gale-force winds drove blazes on Crete, several Aegean islands and parts of the Peloponnese. The fire department said two firefighters died on Crete during an operation to…
A smartphone photograph of vacationers watching smoke from wildfires at a beach in southwest France has become a widely shared image of Europe's wildfire summer. AFP photo editor Maximilien Lamy took the picture last week while on holiday with his partner and…
Three wildfires that broke out in Spain and France in July are among the 15 largest recorded in the European Union since 2016, according to the European Forest Fire Information System, as emergency crews and EU officials respond to simultaneous major blazes.…
Firefighters were battling a wildfire on the Greek tourist island of Paros on Wednesday after strong winds helped spread flames, prompting precautionary evacuations in several areas, authorities said. Yannis Artopios, deputy spokesman for the Greek fire servi…
French authorities allowed people evacuated from three villages near Bordeaux because of a large wildfire to return home on Tuesday, but told them they must be ready to leave again if necessary. Sophie Brocas, the region's prefect, said she had lifted the eva…
Bulgarian border guards began evacuating 186 passengers on Tuesday from a cruise ship that ran aground on the Danube near Vidin after low water levels hindered navigation, the interior ministry said. The Swiss-flagged Viking Ullur ran aground at about 2:20 am…
Residents and business owners have begun returning to Biscarrosse in southwest France after firefighters brought a 3,700-hectare wildfire in the Landes region under control, but authorities warned that a new heatwave could reignite blazes. The village is surr…
Around 15 families in Pelayos de la Presa, west of Madrid, lost their primary homes in Spain's wildfires as residents began returning after evacuation orders were lifted. Jose Fernandez, a 74-year-old pensioner, came back to find burnt furniture, half-collaps…
Japanese officials said Saturday they had ended rescue operations at a shopping mall damaged by an explosion after a powerful earthquake in Kumamoto, as the death toll from the disaster rose to at least 36. The disaster management office in the Kumamoto regio…
Spain authorised residents to return home on Wednesday to all towns evacuated because of a wildfire in Avila province, west of Madrid, as firefighters continued working on major blazes in the area. The interior ministry said the evacuation measure ended immed…
At least 50 people were taken to hospitals with injuries after a major earthquake struck Kyushu in southwest Japan on Tuesday, broadcaster NHK said. NHK also reported that 12 houses had collapsed and that there were four cases in which people had been trapped…
Heavy snowfall in the Argentine Andes has forced about 110 people to evacuate, left nearly 1,000 trucks waiting on snow-covered roads and closed several border crossings into Chile. Truck drivers said they had been stranded for up to eight days after more tha…
A heatwave in Libya brought renewed power cuts, protests and bottled-water shortages as temperatures in the country’s north reached between 39°C and 48°C on Monday. Hundreds of residents protested in Tripoli and its suburbs on Sunday evening against electrici…
Tourists began returning to Arcachon Bay in southwestern France on Sunday after firefighters gained the upper hand over the country's largest wildfire since 1949. The fire started across the bay on July 22 and burned about 42,000 hectares of pine forest along…
Heavy monsoon flooding has inundated villages in eastern Pakistan, forcing residents to flee their homes by boat across fields transformed into wide stretches of water. Pakistan’s disaster agency said flood-related incidents, including drownings and house col…
Spanish authorities said Thursday that wildfires threatening areas near Madrid had stopped spreading and had “almost no flames” left, although two towns remained evacuated near the San Juan reservoir. The Madrid regional prefecture said night-time weather had…
Residents of Le Porge, a French village badly hit by the huge wildfire west of Bordeaux, accused authorities of leaving their homes exposed while early firefighting efforts focused on the nearby Cap Ferret peninsula. The blaze has burned 42,000 hectares since…
Guests were evacuated from Tehran’s five-star Hotel Esteghlal on Monday after a fire broke out in a nearby storage area, Iranian state media reported. Tehran fire department spokesman Jalal Maleki said no injuries had been reported and that firefighters had b…
Spain allowed around 8,500 people evacuated because of a massive wildfire to return to Valdemaqueda and Robledo de Chavela near Madrid late Wednesday, July 29, the interior ministry and the Spanish government's representative in the Madrid region said. The mi…
Solomon Islands police said they recovered the first body from a landslide at the Gold Ridge gold mine, while warning it was too early to confirm how many people remained buried. The landslide happened at about 2:00 am local time on Monday at the mine, about…
Villagers evacuated from wildfires in central Spain said they had only minutes to leave their homes, taking documents, medicine, clothes and family keepsakes while some pets were left behind. The fires have burned tens of thousands of hectares. Ecology Minist…
The major wildfire in Gironde in southwest France appeared to be easing on July 30 after burning more than 42,000 hectares, but firefighters and volunteers near Lanton warned that smouldering ground could still flare up. A small team of firefighters water-lan…
More than 400 tourists and beachgoers were evacuated by sea on Sunday as a wildfire swept through part of Italy's southern Adriatic coast, the coastguard said. The evacuations were taking place around Peschici, in the southern Puglia region. The coastguard sa…
Croatian authorities launched a large search operation on July 26, 2026, for an Austrian skipper who fell overboard from a catamaran during severe weather in the Adriatic Sea. The national maritime search and rescue centre received the alert at 9:10 a.m. loca…
French President Emmanuel Macron was due to visit southwest France on Monday after a wildfire west of Bordeaux burned 42,000 hectares of pine forest and destroyed 240 homes, his office said. Macron was expected to meet firefighters and local officials and sho…
Wildfires near Madrid have disrupted some tourists’ travel plans and raised concerns about smoke and air quality among visitors and people working in the city’s tourism sector. Thomas Fawkes, a 49-year-old lawyer from Chicago, said fires burning about 50 kilo…
World Cup-winning Spain coach Luis de la Fuente visited nearly 300 people evacuated by wildfires west of Madrid on Sunday, July 26, 2026. De la Fuente met evacuees, volunteers and emergency personnel at the La Marazuela sports complex in Las Rozas, Madrid. He…
Bordeaux Mayor Thomas Cazenave said authorities had no current plan to evacuate the southwest French city as forest fires burned nearby, but warned that officials were prepared for conditions to change. Cazenave said on Sunday that the fire remained on the ed…
A flash flood caused by heavy rain killed 10 people and injured 23 at a tourist site in northwest China on Sunday, Chinese state media reported. State broadcaster CCTV said a mountain torrent trapped campers at a scenic area in Weiyuan County, Dingxi City, in…
Five foreign climbers believed to be Bosnian were found dead on Mount Elbrus after worsening weather caused their seven-person group to stray from its route, Russian authorities and state media said. The local prosecutor’s office said the group was climbing R…
Spanish firefighters were battling a new fire front near the coastal city of Valencia on Sunday, after authorities said around 15,000 people had been evacuated in the region. Spain has already moved tens of thousands of people from villages west of Madrid, wh…
Wildlife losses from wildfires west of Bordeaux could be catastrophic after about 42,000 hectares of forest burned in Gironde since Wednesday, France’s ecology minister Monique Barbut said on Monday. Barbut said homes, farmland and vehicles had been destroyed…
Rescuers searched Sunday for 17 missing people after the Vietnamese-registered cargo ship Khoi Nguyen 18 sank in stormy weather in the South China Sea, Vietnam's foreign ministry said. The ministry said the vessel was carrying 62 people. Foreign ministry spok…
Spain's King Felipe VI said Sunday that wildfires burning around Madrid and in other areas had caused an "incalculable" loss of the country's natural heritage. He spoke during a visit to a shelter for evacuees in Madrid. The king said some people had endured…
Wildfires west of Madrid slowed overnight but remained active, the regional government said on Monday. “The situation has improved slightly, but the fire is still active,” the government said, urging residents to remain “extremely cautious.” The fires have bu…
Two men died on Saturday when a small private plane crashed into the roof of a house in northwestern Germany, police said. The light aircraft came down in a residential area of Ganderkesee, near Oldenburg, and hit the pitched roof of a house head-on. Police s…
Typhoon Noul brought strong winds and heavy rain to southern China on Sunday after making landfall near Pinghai in Guangdong Province, about 80 kilometres northeast of Hong Kong. State broadcaster CCTV reported that the typhoon's centre crossed land at about…
A fire in Manises, near the eastern Spanish city of Valencia, killed one person, the local town hall said on July 25. The town hall said on X that firefighters had brought the blaze under control, but that the fire had claimed one life. It did not give furthe…
Tour de France organisers announced on Saturday that they were shortening Sunday's final stage because of wildfires in southwest France. The decision followed a statement from the French interior ministry that officers initially mobilised to provide security…
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has called another government crisis meeting for later Saturday over the response to wildfires in southwest France, his office said. The meeting will bring together key ministers to examine the emergency response. It wi…
A crash between two passenger buses in a central-eastern desert region of Syria killed at least 35 people on Saturday, state media said. The state news agency SANA, quoting a health ministry official, said 30 other people were injured in the collision on the…
A wildfire in France’s Gironde department, which includes Bordeaux, remained broadly stable overnight, the local authority said on Monday. The authority reported no major developments and said security and emergency services remained fully mobilised. The upda…
Residents evacuated from Nethy Bridge in Scotland were expected to return home on Sunday after authorities said the major incident linked to a wildfire in Cairngorms National Park had ended. About 650 people from the village were told to leave on Friday as a…
Authorities in southwestern France allowed people to return to nine villages on Thursday as firefighters said they were “reasonably optimistic” that a major wildfire near Bordeaux was no longer spreading. The fire, which broke out a week earlier in a seaside…
Spain ended the national emergency over wildfires in the Madrid and Avila areas on Thursday after authorities said the blazes had stopped spreading and had almost no flames left. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the government had accepted a proposal to move…
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said firefighters were working to protect lives as wildfires burned west of Madrid, while authorities said a separate fire in eastern Spain had killed one person. The interior ministry said 60,000 people had fled their hom…
Venezuelans across the quake zone and in Caracas held a minute of silence Friday to honor victims of tremors that struck one month earlier. Dozens of rescue volunteers and relatives searching for family members paused their work at a destroyed building in Tan…
French Prime Minister Sebastian Lecornu is to chair a government crisis meeting at 10:00 pm, or 2000 GMT, over wildfires ripping through southern French regions, his office said. His office said he called the ministers of the interior, defence, health, transp…
A wildfire near Madrid that has forced thousands of evacuations is at its peak and cannot currently be controlled, a regional emergency official said. Carlos Novillo, the Madrid regional government's emergency management chief, told reporters that the fire wa…
A 54-year-old worker died on Friday, 24 July 2026, while working on the redevelopment of Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium, Catalan regional police said. Emergency services were called to the stadium, but the worker could not be saved. He is believed to have died…
At least 900 fires broke out in Tunisia over a 72-hour period as the country faced intense heat, a senior civil protection official said Friday. Khalil Mechri said most of the fires recorded between July 20 and July 22 had been put out, but two major fires we…
Officials in southwest France's Gironde region ordered another 55,000 people to evacuate on the outskirts of Bordeaux as firefighters battled nearby fires. Firefighters had earlier told AFP that the blaze had worsened again and had become capable of creating…
Five London police officers were injured on Friday after a Metropolitan Police boat struck Westminster Bridge while responding to a report of a person in the River Thames, the force said. The incident happened at about 3:40 pm local time, or 1440 GMT, next to…
Indonesian authorities called off a 10-day search on Friday for survivors of a passenger boat that capsized off eastern Indonesia, with 14 people still missing. The boat was carrying 76 people when it sank on July 15 while sailing near Selayar, a small island…
The Red Cross said recovery from Venezuela's June 24 earthquakes will take years, one month after the disaster killed more than 5,000 people. Scott Craig, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said urgent needs in…
Spain raced to contain major wildfires on Monday before hotter and drier weather pushed fire danger to extreme levels across much of the country, after about 60,000 people were forced to leave their homes. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Monda…
A wildfire west of Madrid that regional leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso described as the worst in the region's history was still burning on Friday, with Spain's interior ministry saying 63,000 people had been evacuated or ordered to remain indoors. Officials said st…
The death toll from a landslide in southwestern China has risen to 51, with 10 people still missing, authorities in Pengshui County said on July 30. County officials said more than 1,100 people were safely evacuated after the disaster in Chongqing. They said…
The World Bank estimated that twin earthquakes in Venezuela last month caused at least $19.6 billion in direct physical damage and said public reconstruction funding needs to increase quickly to avoid lasting economic effects. According to the World Bank asse…
One soldier died and four others were injured when a Czech military helicopter crashed Thursday, the army said. The army said a Venom helicopter crashed at the 22nd helicopter base in Namest nad Oslavou, with five soldiers on board. Emergency services were de…
Floods caused by heavy monsoon rain have killed at least 41 people in India’s northeastern Assam state, officials said Thursday, as rescue and relief work continued. Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the deaths were linked to monsoon rains that be…
Wildfires have forced tens of thousands of residents and tourists to leave France’s Cap Ferret peninsula by road and sea during the peak summer holiday season.…
Sri Lanka's environment minister warned on 23 July that the country was heading for a severe drought followed by potentially damaging floods because of the El Nino weather phenomenon. Environment Minister Dhammika Patabendi said Sri Lanka was managing irrigat…
Survivors of Venezuela's June 24 earthquakes are searching animal shelters for pets lost in the disaster, while hundreds of animals wait to be reunited with owners or adopted. The 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes struck within a minute of each other. The sou…
Human-caused climate change has intensified a drought across Europe, with extreme heat rather than low rainfall driving the exceptionally dry conditions, an international team of scientists said Thursday. The source says Europe is facing a major drought, with…
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday that saving lives and protecting inhabited areas were the priority as wildfires burned west of Madrid. Sp…
Spanish police said a man was arrested on suspicion of starting a fire near Madrid by using a farm vehicle. The report came as authorities were responding to…
Human rights organisations said hundreds of political prisoners in Venezuela are facing a "double tragedy" after powerful earthquakes struck the country a month ago. The twin tremors hit northern Venezuela on June 24. The source reported that the humanitarian…
Italian firefighters battled dozens of wildfires in Sicily on Wednesday as temperatures rose above 40C and hot winds helped spread the flames. One fire forced the evacuation of a clinic. Sicily's regional president, Renato Schifani, said nearly 50 fires, out…
The death toll from a bus crash in Ivory Coast earlier this month has risen to 39, with 45 people injured, the transport ministry said. The ministry said an investigation found that the bus was overcrowded when it swerved off a bridge and fell into the Bafing…
A fire in a low-income neighbourhood of Lima killed 10 people, destroyed two homes and injured two others, Peru's INDECI civil defense institute reported Wednesday. Relatives said five of those who died were adults and five were children. Police chief Oscar A…
A large wildfire in Spain's Guadalajara province, north of Madrid, has burned for a week and devastated about 320 square kilometres of hillside, farmland and s…
More than 100 people were hospitalised after wildfires reached nearly 150 homes in Seraidi, a town in north-eastern Algeria, Interior Minister Said Sayoud said on Wednesday. The fires began on Tuesday in Seraidi, west of Annaba, in an area surrounded by fores…
On 22 July 2026, two trams collided on the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, leaving at least 15 people injured, officials said. One person was seriously hurt. The bridge is a major landmark in the Dutch port city, crosses the Maas river and serves as an important…
Algeria's interior ministry said wildfires have killed six people, with several fires still burning as parts of the country face a heatwave. The ministry said six deaths had been registered after fires affected several provinces in recent days. It said it had…
Heavy rains in Chile have killed at least 13 people and left more than 60,000 others cut off after roads were washed out, government officials said in a Tuesday report. Officials said the recovery effort was focused on restoring basic services. The storm bega…
Norwegian police said on Tuesday that they have identified a suspect linked to a large fire that broke out last week in Drammen, near Oslo, but said they are not treating the blaze as a deliberate criminal act. The fire occurred on Friday and destroyed more t…
Police said the bodies of three Egyptians were found in the Sava river near Zagreb on Tuesday, two days after they were reported missing after going swimming. A police statement said a friend reported the three missing after last seeing them on Sunday when th…
More than 600 firefighters and troops, supported by 29 aircraft, battled a large wildfire north of Madrid for a sixth day on Tuesday. Authorities said the fire, in the province of Guadalajara about 100 kilometres north of Madrid, was one of the most difficult…
The United Nations said on Tuesday that 144 refugees and migrants were reported dead or missing after maritime incidents off Mauritania last week. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said three rescue and disembarkation operations were carried out between July 14 a…
Wildfires burned more than 42,000 hectares, or 103,000 acres, of land in France by mid-July this year, surpassing the previous record set in 2022, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. The burned area is about four times the size of Paris.…
The death toll from a tunnel collapse at an under-construction hydroelectric project in India's remote northeast has risen to at least 20, officials said Wednesday. The collapse happened on Monday in Namchi district in the Himalayan state of Sikkim, where wor…
At least 10 people have died in Chile after storms brought heavy rainfall since last week to the country's typically arid north, an official said Monday. Alicia Cebrian, director of Chile's SENAPRED national emergency service, told a press briefing that 10 pe…
Canada is facing one of the most intense wildfire seasons in its history, Prime Minister Mark Carney said, with nearly 1,000 active fires and about three million hectares, or 7.4 million acres, already burned. The report said virtually all Canadian provinces…
At least 20 people were killed and more than 100 remained missing after flooding hit Afghanistan's Nuristan province on Monday, officials said. Afghanistan's disaster agency, ANDMA, said 20 bodies had been recovered and more than 80 people were injured. The c…
At least 20 people have been killed and more than 80 injured in flooding in Afghanistan's Nuristan province, the country's disaster management agency said Monday. The agency, ANDMA, said more than 100 people were missing. It said casualties were reported in P…
Heavy rain hampered the search on Tuesday for dozens of people missing after flooding in eastern Afghanistan's Nuristan province killed at least 23 people, officials said. Around 100 people remained unaccounted for, according to the national disaster agency a…
Chile declared a state of emergency on Monday after heavy rainfall killed at least 10 people and destroyed or severely damaged more than 1,100 homes, officials said. The rain has affected the usually dry northern regions of Coquimbo and Atacama since last wee…
Authorities in southwestern Afghanistan were searching on Monday for 14 people missing in the desert after five other migrants trying to reach Iran died in severe heat, police said. The group had left more than a week earlier in Nimroz, one of Afghanistan's d…
More than 1,200 people have fled a major wildfire north of Madrid, firefighters said on Monday. The fire has been burning through a mountainous area with small villages. The fire started on Thursday in a forest-covered mountainous area near La Mierla, in the…
Rescue operations were under way on Monday after a boat capsized while crossing a river in Jigawa state in northwestern Nigeria. Authorities said at least five people had drowned and around a dozen people were still missing. Police had initially said up to 40…
At least eight people were killed in a stampede after an evangelical gathering in Bujumbura, Burundi's largest city, police said. Police said eight worshippers died and nine others were injured. Thousands of people had attended a sermon by Burundian preacher…
Firefighters said a wildfire in southern France has been brought under control after it raced through wooded hills, forced hundreds of people from their homes and burned an area described as twice the size of London's Heathrow airport. The fire broke out the…
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake in Peru's Andes region killed five people and injured 21 others, officials said Sunday. The Geophysics Institute of Peru said the tremor struck on Saturday night and shook Chongos Bajo, about 300 kilometers, or 180 miles, east of Li…
Flash floods and landslides caused by monsoon rains killed at least 19 people in India on Sunday, officials and local media said, as rescue operations continued in affected areas. Eight people were killed in Nagaland, a northeastern state next to Myanmar. Wen…
Firefighters said a wildfire north of Madrid has burned 26,000 hectares, or 65,000 acres. An earlier account from Spanish authorities had put the burned area at about 13,000 hectares, or 32,000 acres, and said around 700 residents had been evacuated. That ear…
Guyana's government said the death toll from the MV Barima ferry disaster has risen to 53. The ferry capsized off Guyana's coast while travelling from Georgetown to Port Kaituma in the inland Essequibo region. An earlier account said the ferry flipped over on…
Two more survivors from a passenger boat that sank off eastern Indonesia were found on an uninhabited island on Sunday, a rescue official said, a day after five others were rescued while floating in the sea. The boat sank on Wednesday as it sailed near Selaya…
Multiple fires broke out on Saturday in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, forcing the evacuation of one settlement and injuring at least two firefighters, according to police and rescue officials. The first blaze was reported in the early afternoon…
Severe flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains killed at least four people in Vietnam, state media reported Saturday. Vietnam's disaster and dyke management authority said more than 238 hectares of rice and other crops across four northern mountainous p…
A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck southeastern Turkey on Saturday morning, the country's disaster management agency said. AFAD said the quake occurred at 6:20 am local time, or 0320 GMT, in the Battalgazi district of Malatya province. It said the tremor was f…
A remote Venezuelan coastal village that avoided the worst physical damage from the June 24 earthquakes is facing shortages and lost income after the disaster disrupted travel, tourism and trade. World Food Programme trucks travelled along a winding coastal r…
Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodriguez said Friday that the country would use $346 million from the International Monetary Fund for earthquake reconstruction. Rodriguez said in a statement on Telegram that the money would help support affected families…
Firefighters in northeastern Spain prepared for another difficult night on Friday as shifting winds threatened to spread a large wildfire in the Aragon region. The fire began on Wednesday in a rural area and has burned almost 14,000 hectares, or 34,600 acres.…
A 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck off southern Mexico on Friday and was felt in parts of Central America, while a tsunami warning for Pacific coastal areas of Mexico and Guatemala was later lifted after the US government said the threat had passed. Authoritie…
A landslide in southwest China killed at least eight people and left 34 missing on Friday, local authorities said, as rescue work continued in Chongqing's Pengshui County. The landslide happened at about 9:10 am local time, or 0110 GMT, according to state bro…
Survivors of Hong Kong's deadliest fire in decades called for an apology and accountability from officials as a months-long inquiry into the Wang Fuk Court disaster ended on Friday. The November fire killed 169 people and displaced thousands after flames spre…
Ugandan police said Friday night that the death toll from a school bus crash had risen to 23 children and one adult, and that all school field trips had been cancelled. The bus was returning to Kampala from a school trip to Sipi Falls in eastern Uganda on Thu…
Local authorities said at least 14 people died and five others were injured on Thursday when a van or minibus went off a road and fell into a ravine in northern Peru. Ricardo Chilon, head of institutional communications for the San Juan municipality, said aut…
Regional authorities said on 17 July that a major wildfire in northeast Spain had burned more than 12,000 hectares of land after raging for two days, and warned that there was a very high risk it could spread further. Roberto Bermúdez de Castro, who is respon…
A passenger boat sank off an Indonesian island, killing at least one person and leaving 24 others missing, the local search and rescue agency said Thursday. Muhammad Arif Anwar, the head of the local search and rescue agency, said an engine failure caused the…
New Zealand authorities issued a tsunami warning after a 5.9-magnitude earthquake on the western coast of the South Island. The National Emergency Management Agency warned people in affected areas to move immediately to high ground, leave tsunami evacuation z…
Algerian police said on Friday that an electrical spark from an air conditioning unit caused a fire that killed 11 people at an orphanage in the capital. The blaze broke out before dawn on Thursday at a childcare facility in the Mohammadia suburb of Algiers.…
The United Nations warned Thursday that more than 500 people were feared dead after reports of two large shipwrecks off Myanmar since late June. The International Organization for Migration and UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said in a joint statement that two…
One person died and three others were missing after a privately owned boat carrying 20 people sank near Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, US officials said. Local fire and police teams, the US Coast Guard, helicopters, planes and rescue boats were involve…
The official death toll from the two earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24 has risen to 5,398, officials said in an update released Wednesday. The toll…
Six people died Tuesday in a fire at a residential tower under renovation in central Brussels, local authorities said. Workers became trapped in a lift as the fire spread through the lift shaft and reached several floors of the Oxy Tower, the site in the Belg…
A woman badly injured in the July 9 wildfire in Bedar, in Spain's southern Almeria province, has died in a Seville hospital, raising the death toll from the bl…
A bus went off a bridge in western Ivory Coast on Monday and fell into the Bafing river, killing 24 people, the transport ministry said. The bus was travelling from the northern town of Odienne to Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast’s political capital. The AFP report…
The bodies of two Romanian climbers who had been missing since last week were found on Monday in the Gran Paradiso massif in the Italian Alps, authorities told AFP. Authorities in the Aosta Valley, a northern Italian region bordering Switzerland and France, s…
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called for stronger wildfire prevention after a blaze in Almeria province killed 13 people and burned a large rural area near the Mediterranean coast. Sanchez visited the southern municipality of Turre on Monday to meet em…
A 20-year-old woman died on Sunday from injuries sustained in a large Bangkok bar fire one week earlier, raising the death toll to 34, health authorities said. The fire swept through the Rong Beer Na Lad Phrao bar and restaurant on the night of July 12 and qu…
Flash floods and landslides caused by monsoon rains have killed at least 50 people in Bangladesh over the past week, officials said on Sunday, and tens of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes. Bangladesh is a low-lying delta country crosse…