STORM CHRISTOPH – Due to severe rainfall and flooding, police are evacuating people from their homes in Didsbury, Greater Manchester, UK

Due to severe rainfall and flooding, police are evacuating people from their homes in Didsbury, Greater Manchester, UK
‘Extremely loud’ explosion in city centre – at least three people dead in Madrid, Spain
At least three people have died and six others were injured after an “extremely loud” explosion destroyed a residential building belonging to the Catholic Church in Madrid’s city centre.
The blast happened near a nursing home and a school – and videos and images shared on social media showed rubble scattered in the street.
The city’s mayor said early information indicated the blast was caused by a gas leak, and confirmed that one of the bodies has been discovered under the rubble. Someone was working on a boiler at the time.
Two people have been transferred to hospital for further treatment – and one of them is in a serious condition with a head injury.
Rescue teams, firefighters and police are all at the scene.
Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida said there was an ongoing fire in the six-storey building devastated by the blast.
It was a complex that provided residential training for priests and also gave meals to homeless people, a neighbour said.
The mayor said a nearby school had suffered minor damage.
The school was believed to be empty at the time, according to TVE, because classes had not resumed yet following a record snowfall in the Spanish capital on 9 January.
All nursing home residents were safe and evacuated, according to police sources.
The mayor said the residents were being taken to a hotel across the street.
A witness, Leire Reparaz, said she heard a loud explosion a few minutes before 3pm local time as she headed to her home near the Puerta de Toledo landmark.
She told the AP news agency: “We didn’t know where the sound came from. We all thought it was from the school.
“We went up the stairs to the top of our building and we could see the structure of the building and lots of grey smoke.”
Another witness, Tania Tapia, said: “Suddenly there was a brutal explosion behind my back and that pushed me forward.
“I didn’t know where it came from, my ears were ringing so I turned around and I saw a lot of smoke and the sidewalk full of debris.”
The explosion happened in Toledo Street. Footage on Twitter showed smoke coming from the building, a number of wrecked cars and debris strewn in the road.
A police spokeswoman said the area was being evacuated but could not confirm the cause of the explosion.
Courtesy of Sky News
Storms hit Sunshine Coast and Brisbane, Australia tearing down trees and power outages
Residents on the Sunshine Coast are cleaning up this morning after a short but severe storm tore through some suburbs, bringing trees down onto homes and leaving hundreds without power.
A quick burst of heavy rain and strong winds caused dozens of trees to be uprooted in Little Mountain, with gusts of up to 57 kilometres an hour recorded at the Sunshine Coast airport.
The State Emergency Service said they received 58 calls for help overnight, mostly in response to the wild weather in this area.
At the peak of the storm, more than 350 homes and businesses were without power, with dozens still disconnected on Sunday morning as crews worked to restore the system.
The highest rainfall totals were recorded at nearby at Bells Creek, which saw 70 millimetres in the past 24 hours, while Black Mountain, inland from Noosa, received 79 millimetres.
In Caloundra West, a trampoline was lifted and blown across several houses, crashing through fences.
Earlier, in Brisbane, day two of the Gabba Test cricket match was called off early as a storm rolled through the city.
The weather bureau is closely monitoring cyclone Kimi that’s developed off the Cooktown coast.
Meteorologist Harry Clark said the system is expected to bring heavy rain around the already saturated region, which is still recovering from Tropical Cyclone Imogen earlier this month.
A flood watch remains in place for parts of the state’s north.
Some areas that are still recovering from Tropical Cyclone Imogen earlier this month could receive rainfall of up to 200mm in the coming days.
“The flood watch is out for those areas between Cape Flattery and Ingham,” he said.
“It’s really largely because those catchments are very saturated from recent rainfall.
“At this stage, we’re expecting minor to moderate flooding to be possible, and particularly in those areas where flooding has recently occurred.”
Courtesy of abc.net.au
MAGNITUDE 6.7 RUSSIA MONGOLIA BORDER REGION
Depth: 10 km
Distances: 273 km SW of Angarsk, Russia / pop: 243,000 / local time: 05:32:58.9 2021-01-12

Massive power grid failure plunges Pakistan into darkness
Pakistan’s national power grid has failed, leaving almost the entire country in the dark. With officials blaming a mysterious “plunge in the frequency,” conspiracy theories quickly proliferated.
“A countrywide blackout has been caused by a sudden plunge in the frequency in the power transmission system,” Pakistani power minister Omar Ayub Khan wrote on Twitter, shortly after the country was plunged into darkness before midnight on Saturday.
Pakistanis soon shared pictures of their blacked out cities and towns, with the starry night sky clearly visible above without the usual light pollution.
Khan added that repair crews had been dispatched to power stations, and urged citizens to remain calm.
Government spokesman Imran Ghazali said shortly afterwards that power would be restored to Islamabad within three hours, and to the rest of the country by Sunday morning.
Abid Qaiyum Suleri, an economic adviser to Khan, said on Twitter that a 500KV transmission had broken down, though Suleri did not know exactly how. He suggested that fog or an “uptake issue” from the Tarbela Dam hydroelectric plant could have been responsible.
However, other theories soon spread in the darkness. Some predicted a coup against Prime Minister Imran Khan. Others warned of an impending attack by India.
Other commenters stepped in to remind them not to panic, to wait for power to be restored, and to “go to sleep early tonight.”
While rebel attacks have caused massive blackouts in Pakistan before, the country’s crumbling infrastructure and growing demand for power often leave citizens without power for hours on end. However, new Chinese-built power stations and supply lines are beginning to make up the shortfall.
Courtesy of rt.com
Ukraine rocked as huge gas pipeline explosion ‘leaves entire villages shaking’
A giant gas explosion has been reported in the Ukraine – with the explosion believed to have happened on a main gas pipeline in the Urengoy – Pomary region.
Local news reports have suggested the explosion occurred near the village of Kalaydyntsi – while footage and photos from the area showed a giant ball of fire lighting up the sky.
No casualties have been reported – with the giant explosion taking place on Saturday.
A local news update stated: “Emergency gas shutdowns are possible. Please, if the gas is turned off, make sure that all gas burners are closed.”
Footage shared on Twitter showed a giant ball of fire erupting skywards as locals reported a deafening explosion.
One Twitter user, sharing footage, wrote: “The explosion thundered on the gas pipeline of the Lubnygaz enterprise in the #Poltava region of #Ukraine.”
Another video uploaded to Twitter showed the flames erupting on the horizon while a roar from the fire could be clearly heard.
Locals filming the incident could be heard gasping and exclaiming in the background of the video.
While further footage from a busy motorway showed flames and dark smoke leaping from the source of the explosion near the village of Novaki.
The BBC reports Ihor Mosiychuk, who resides in the vicinity of the explosion, said that the incident occurred between the villages of Yenkivtsi and Tarandyntsi.
He is reported stating via Facebook: “The explosion was so strong that the windows in the neighboring villages were shaking.”
He added: “You can see the fire.”
Meanwhile, local emergency services have warned that some towns, cities and regions will be affected by emergency gas shut downs.
Kyiv Post reports local authoritie warning: “The list of settlements that have been disconnected or will be disconnected from the gas supply is being specified.”
They add: “JSC Lubnygaz is putting all emergency services on duty in an operational mode.”
Courtesy of dailystar.co.uk
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