International briefs

27 feared dead

KOLKATA: At least 27 people were missing on Sunday after an overcrowded ferry capsized in a river in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. The small vessel, with 38 passengers on board, sank while crossing the Runarayan river in Kolaghat, about 50 km southwest of the state capital Kolkata. Police said the coastguard had been called in to help with the rescue operation.

Five leap to death

BEIJING: Five people were killed and seven injured when they leapt from a fifth-storey rooftop in southwest China to escape a fire engulfing the building. The inferno struck the building in Guizhou province in the early hours of Sunday morning, after a shop on the ground floor caught fire, Xinhua reported. One other person inside the building was killed in the blaze. The seven injured were being treated in a local hospital and all were expected to survive. The cause of the blaze was under investigation.


Pak blast toll 99

PESHAWAR: Pakistan authorities faced a furious backlash on Sunday over security and medical failures after a suicide bomber killed 99 people at a volleyball match in one of the country’s worst attacks. Police rounded up dozens of suspects and authorities opened an investigation into poor medical care as doctors in the remote northwest struggled to treat the casualties, many of them lying on the floor. The bomber rammed a car bomb into a crowd watching the tournament in Shah Hasan Khan village, in Lakki Marwat, on Friday.