MILAN: Six people died and two were seriously injured in a snowmobile accident in Italy’s autonomous province of Trentino, authorities said yesterday. The eight involved in the accident at Mount Cermis on Friday were Russian citizens, said a Russian consular official. Rescue services said they had been riding aboard a snowmobile and attached sled on an unlit ski slope that was considered suitable only for expert skiers. When the snowmobile veered off-course, they were all tossed towards the rocks below.
Family of five killed in plane crash
LYON: A French-Moroccan family of five were killed yesterday when their small, twin-engined private plane crashed near Grenoble airport in the foothills of the French Alps. The plane, which had been heading to Morocco via Spain, came down just after takeoff near the village of Saint-Pierre-de-Bressieux, 50km northwest of Grenoble. The two parents and three children aged 8 and 14 were returning to Morocco after a skiing holiday. The cause of the crash was not clear.
18 arrested in Belfast violence
BELFAST: At least nine officers were injured and 18 people arrested in fresh violence overnight on the streets here, police said yesterday. The Police Service of Northern Ireland used water cannon against a crowd of up to 300 people in the second consecutive night of violence by pro-British protesters. The renewed wave of disorder follows weeks of Protestant loyalist unrest sparked by the December 3 decision by Belfast City Council to limit the number of days it flies the British flag. More than 30 petrol bombs, along with fireworks, ball bearings and masonry, were hurled at officers in east Belfast.
Agencies
