Death from sky for sheltering quake survivors

MEXICO: After a powerful earthquake struck Mexico on Friday afternoon, local time, survivors near the quake’s epicentre gathered in a field, planning to spend the night sleeping under the stars or in vehicles instead of in damaged homes vulnerable to aftershocks.

And then, a second crisis hit. This time, it fell from the sky.

A military helicopter carrying officials assessing quake damage was about to land nearby when the pilot lost control. A few seconds later, it crashed to the earth - directly onto several vehicles packed with survivors.

Thirteen people on the ground died and 15 people were injured, according to the state prosecutor’s office in Oaxaca, where the crash took place. The dead included at least three children.

Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete, Oaxaca Governor Alejandro Murat and everyone else aboard the helicopter survived with only minor injuries, officials said.

Navarrete told a local journalist that the pilot of the Blackhawk helicopter lost control about 30m above the ground as it was preparing to land in the city of Jamiltepec, about 30km from the earthquake’s epicentre.

‘‘It is unfortunate that this happened,’’ he told Televisa news Friday night. He added that it was fortunate that ‘‘there was no greater loss of human lives.’’

Mexicans reacted angrily to the crash.

‘‘In Oaxaca, a helicopter should not fly at night,’’ tweeted Mexican Senator Layda Sansores. She called the accident ‘‘an act of stupidity, of failed leadership and unforgivable irresponsibility.’’

The accident was another embarrassment for Navarrete. Earlier this month, an intelligence agent from an agency overseen by the Interior Department was caught tailing an opposition presidential candidate.

Navarrete and Murat were evaluating damage from the earthquake before their helicopter crashed.

The US Geological Survey said the 7.2 magnitude quake struck near the town of Pinotepa in Oaxaca state. A magnitude 5.9 aftershock also centred in Oaxaca struck about an hour later, and was followed by a series of aftershocks throughout the night.

While some homes and businesses near the quake’s epicentre were damaged, there were no reports of deaths, officials said. About 300km away in Mexico City, where hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets for safety after an earthquake early warning system alarm bell rang out, only minor damage was reported. - LA Times

Time for someone to go

Either Malcolm Turnbull or Barnaby Joyce has to go to end the dysfunction at the top of Australia’s government, Labor believes. The prime minister and his deputy have exchanged a public war of words over Joyce’s extra-marital affair, a situation senior Labor frontbencher Richard Marles says is unprecedented. ‘‘We’ve clearly now got a totally dysfunctional state of affairs at the top of this government,’’ he said yesterday. ‘‘It would seem to me Barnaby has to go but I know one thing: one of them has to.’’ On Thursday, while announcing a ban on ministers having sex with staffers.

Gas attack feared

Six civilians suffered breathing difficulties and other symptoms indicative of poison gas inhalation after an attack launched by Turkey on the Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin, local doctors and Syria’s staterun news agency reported yesterday. Jiwan Mohammed, a doctor at Afrin’s main hospital, said the facility was treating six people who had been poisoned who arrived Saturday night from the village of Arandi after it was attacked by Turkish troops. Another doctor, Nouri Qenber, said the victims suffered shortness of breath, vomiting and skin rashes. One of the victims had dilated pupils, he said, quoting one of the rescuers. Both spoke to The Associated Press via a messaging service.

Holocaust row deepens

Israeli politicians accused Poland’s prime minister of anti-Semitism yesterday for equating the Polish perpetrators in the Holocaust to its supposed ‘‘Jewish perpetrators,’’ setting off a new chapter in an angry dispute over Poland’s new bill criminalising the mention of Polish complicity in the Nazi-led genocide. Yair Lapid, head of the centrist opposition Yesh Atid party, said Israel should recall its ambassador immediately in response to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s comments, which he called ‘‘antiSemitism of the oldest kind’’. ‘‘The perpetrators are not the victims. The Jewish state will not allow the murdered to be blamed for their own murder,’’ said Lapid, the son of a Holocaust survivor.