World Briefs

AT LEAST 10 KILLED IN FOG-RELATED ACCIDENTS IN PAKISTAN’S PUNJAB

lahore: At least 10 people were killed on Wednesday in two fog-related accidents in Pakistan’s Punjab province, an official said. In the first incident, five people died while 27 others injured when a passenger bus carrying them fell into a ravine near Talagang, Chakwal, some 300kms from Lahore. According to a spokesperson of the Punjab Emergency Department’s Rescue 1122, the bus was going to Multan from Rawalpindi.“As the motorway was closed due to fog, the driver opted for an alternative route -- the GT Road. In the thick fog at around 2 am, the driver lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a turn, and the bus plunged into a 100-foot-deep ravine,” he said.

Philippines evacuates 3,000 villagers after volcano activity raises alert

manila: A series of mild eruptions at the most active volcano in the Philippines has prompted the evacuation of nearly 3,000 villagers in a permanent danger zone on its foothills, officials said Wednesday. Authorities raised the 5-step alert around Mayon Volcano in the northeastern province of Albay to level 3 on Tuesday after detecting intermittent rockfalls, some as big as cars, from its peak crater in recent days along with deadly pyroclastic flows — a fast-moving avalanche of super-hot rock fragments, ash and gas. Alert level 5 would indicate a major explosive eruption, often with violent ejections of ash and debris and widespread ashfall, is underway.