India's national shooting team have been forced to spend the day at an airport after customs officials refused to allow them back into the country carrying guns and ammunition.
The embarrassing gaffe left top shooters, including Commonwealth Games gold medallist Gurpreet Singh, stranded for over 12 hours at Delhi's international airport until their paperwork cleared, National Rifles Association of India spokesperson Rajeev Bhatia told AFP.
The shooters returning from competitions abroad were told the appropriate customs official required to clear their firearms was not available, despite the team insisting they had followed standard procedures.
They were finally allowed through after spending most of the day languishing at the airport, leaving them exhausted and athletes demanding an explanation.
"We had the necessary documents with us yet they failed to give us clearance. We had to wait for the customs commissioner for hours," one of the shooters caught up in the delay told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"Look we lost a day's training, with the World Cup in Munich starting on May 17. It is sad that these things happen to the country's sportspersons."
Olympic gold medal shooter Abhinav Bindra slammed India's firearms association for leaving the team stranded at the airport.
"They are our countries ambassadors and should not be treated like this. Would this ever happen to our cricket team?" he posted on his Twitter account.
But the rifles association president Raninder Singh said they were not to blame for the unfortunate incident.
"No body is more perturbed when issues like the non clearance of our teams weapons by customs at IGI crops up than us at the NRAI... what to say except astounding sad and frustrating," Singh wrote on Twitter, referring to Indira Gandhi International airport where the incident occurred.
fk/np/ds
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
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