Twenty people were rescued after the bus they were travelling on was caught in a flash flood in Dubai's Hatta valley.
The bus was travelling in the area surrounding Umm Al Nasour mountain on Tuesday when the road began to flood because of heavy rain. The driver told the passengers to disembark and then led them to higher ground.
Officers from Hatta Police Station were called to the area at 7.30pm. Col Mubarak Al Ketbi, director of the station, said the driver's quick thinking saved the passengers.
“The bus driver acted quickly and got the people out of the bus after the water level inside the bus began to increase and directed them to the highest nearby peak until the rescue team arrived,” he said.
The rescue teams, from Dubai Police and Civil Defence, initially struggled to reach the bus.
“Police patrols were unable to enter due to the narrow road and rugged valley, in addition to the presence of large stones and rocks blocking the way,” he said.
“The team started to look for other alternatives to reach the stranded people and decided to use Polaris bikes,” Col Al Ketbi said.
"First Warrant Officer Ahmed Tarish drove the bike inside the valley to reach the top of the mountain to save the stranded people.”
Police said one of the passengers sustained a minor injury during the incident but the rest were unharmed.
Officer Tarish said that the mission was dangerous and made difficult by the rough terrain, darkness and pouring rain.
“There was a possibility to hit a rock or fall into holes in the valley so I made sure to drive the bike slowly until I managed to reach the top of the mountain,” he said.
“I helped the injured person get on the bike with me, while the rest of the people walked behind me along with two men from the civil defence."
They travelled down the mountain on a road at the edge of the valley, where police and civil defence were waiting along with ambulances.
Heavy rain fell across parts of the country on Tuesday and led to widespread flooding along the eastern coast.
Four people, including two children, died when flash floods swept away three vehicles in Wadi Al Helo, Sharjah.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
The years Ramadan fell in May
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Company profile
Company: Verity
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Mia Man’s tips for fermentation
- Start with a simple recipe such as yogurt or sauerkraut
- Keep your hands and kitchen tools clean. Sanitize knives, cutting boards, tongs and storage jars with boiling water before you start.
- Mold is bad: the colour pink is a sign of mold. If yogurt turns pink as it ferments, you need to discard it and start again. For kraut, if you remove the top leaves and see any sign of mold, you should discard the batch.
- Always use clean, closed, airtight lids and containers such as mason jars when fermenting yogurt and kraut. Keep the lid closed to prevent insects and contaminants from getting in.
Miss Granny
Director: Joyce Bernal
Starring: Sarah Geronimo, James Reid, Xian Lim, Nova Villa
3/5
(Tagalog with Eng/Ar subtitles)
