Chace Harrison has died in hospital days after the accident in Tasmania (Picture: Reuters)
A boy has died in hospital days after falling from a bouncy castle which had been swept into the air by a strong wind.
Chace Harrison, 11, has become the sixth child to die in the accident which happened in the Australian town of Devonport, Tasmania last Thursday.
‘It is with a heavy heart that I can confirm an 11-year-old boy passed away in hospital this afternoon,’ said Tasmania police commissioner Darren Hine.
‘Our thoughts continue to be with his family, and the families and loved ones of all the children involved, during what is an incomprehensibly difficult time.’
Chace, 11, has become the sixth child to die in the incident (Picture: Tasmania Police)
Tributes have been left at the scene (Picture: Reuters)
The bouncy castle was blown 30 feet into the air (Picture: Reuters)
Three boys, all aged 12, and two girls, aged 11 and 12, earlier died after a gust of wind blew the bouncy castle into the air at a celebration to mark the end of the school year.
Two other children remain in a critical condition and one is recovering at home having been discharged from hospital.
The wind lifted the castle around 33 feet into the air at the Hillcrest Primary School event, which was attended by around 40 pupils.
The tragedy triggered an outpouring of grief in the local community and around Australia.
Five other children, all aged between 11 and 12, also died in the incident
The tragedy has left Australia stunned (Picture: Getty)
People have been leaving flowers at the school, while an online fundraiser has raised more than Aus$1.2 million (£650,000).
Christmas lights have been turned off and a candlelit vigil was held on Friday in remembrance of the boys and girls who died in the incident.
Tasmanian authorities have started an investigation into what happened, which they expect will ‘take some time’.
The state was ‘working tirelessly with all parties concerned to ensure the extensive investigation is completed as a matter of priority for the coroner,’ Mr Hine said.
Forensic child interviewers were being sent to the island to help question children who witnessed the accident.
The Netherlands has become the first EU country to re-enter a strict nationwide lockdown in a response to the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant that will shutter swaths of the economy until at least mid-January.
Tough new restrictions to close all bars, restaurants, non-essential shops, cinemas, and gyms kicked in on Sunday morning and will last until at least January 14. Professional sports events will take place without crowds and homes can invite a maximum of four guests during the Christmas period, to be reduced to two after the holidays.
Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte told journalists on Saturday that the measures were “unavoidable” in the face of a variant which is spreading “even faster” than authorities had expected. “We have to intervene now to prevent it from getting worse,” said Rutte.
Also on Saturday, Germany announced that it will ban all travellers entering the country from the UK, apart from German nationals, residents and transit passengers, from midnight on Sunday to stop the spread of Omicron.
Everyone entering Germany from the UK, whether vaccinated or not, will require a negative PCR test and will have to quarantine for 14 days.
The Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s main public health agency, announced the restrictions on Saturday evening as it classified the UK as a virus variant area.
The Dutch lockdown, which is the toughest imposed since 2020, was announced after an emergency cabinet meeting on Saturday and followed advice from the country’s health authority that a “hard” lockdown was urgently required.
The Netherlands has a mixed record handling the pandemic. The government initially opted for a lighter, so-called “intelligent lockdown” during the first phase of the virus in 2020. But this year it has been forced to take some of the toughest measures seen anywhere in the EU in the face of surging case rates and hospitalisations. Rutte’s government had come under fire for lifting almost all restrictions in September, leading to a surge in infections in the autumn.
In the past 24 hours, the Netherlands recorded 14,742 positive Covid-19 cases, continuing a steadily declining trend for the past month. The numbers are down from a peak of over 24,000 recorded in November, but health authorities have advised stricter measures are needed to contain the highly contagious Omicron strain.
The Dutch health authority (RIVM) estimates that the Omicron strain will become the dominant cause of infections before the end of the year. Jaap van Dissel, director of disease control at RIVM said that as of today, the new strain only accounts for a “small share of infections . . . but we know that share will increase”.
The government is also ramping up access to booster shots after falling behind its EU peers on administering additional doses that health experts say are vital in maintaining some immunity to the virus. The Netherlands was also slower than most EU countries in vaccinating people, starting its immunisation programme in January this year.
Restrictive measures have been met with street protests and violence in recent months, notably during two nights of rioting in Rotterdam last month.
Rutte urged the country to show unity: “We have previously proven that we can handle a lot together. Together we will also overcome this period. I am absolutely convinced of that”, he said.
The Netherlands will enter into a tough lockdown from tomorrow morning to curb the spread of Omicron, with non-essential shops, bars, restaurants, and other public places to close.
Schools will also shut from Monday, and the lockdown will run until at least 14 January, Prime Minister Mark Rutte has announced.
He said it was "unavoidable because of the fifth wave caused by the Omicron variant that is bearing down on us".
Image:A quiet Amsterdam street after a day full of Christmas shopping. Pic: AP
While the terms of the latest restrictions have not been fully detailed, local media reports that it means that hairdressers and gyms will also shut their doors, and it will be enforced until 14 January.
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Shops, bars, and restaurants in the country are already under a 5pm to 5am curfew, which was introduced at the end of last month.
Earlier today, the Dutch National Institute for Public Health (RIVM) reported a total of more than 2.9 million COVID cases since the start of the pandemic with 20,420 reported deaths.
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The institute also reported 14,616 new infections across 24 hours.
Elsewhere in Europe, worried ministers in France, Cyprus, and Austria have tightened travel restrictions, while Paris has also cancelled its New Year's Eve fireworks.
Denmark has closed theatres, concert halls, amusement parks and museums over the Christmas period, and Germany's regional health ministers have urged the national government on Saturday to introduce tougher rules on people arriving from the UK.
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Restrictions elsewhere in Europe could serve as a precursor to events in the UK, after government advisers said that a touch circuit breaker may be needed to protect hospitals.
France has already taken action against Britons, banning travellers from the UK from entering the country without a compelling reason (such as visiting family).
Government scientists want time for the booster rollout to get needles in the arms of more people and buy some time to slow the spread of COVID-19, after daily cases jumped up to record levels this week.
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More than 30 people are feared dead and many are missing after a devastating storm swept over the Philippines.
Super Typhoon Rai crashed into the country's southeastern islands on Thursday, levelling homes and bringing winds of about 195km/h (120mph).
The strongest storm to hit the Philippines this year has toppled power poles, uprooted trees and left three million people without electricity.
The country's disaster agency says the reported death toll stands at 31.
Four people are confirmed killed and 27 are believed to have died, it said in a statement.
Rescue operations are now under way in the devastated regions.
There are growing concerns for the holiday island of Siargao, where the storm - also known as Typhoon Odette in the Philippines - first made landfall. Its governor said the island was "totally devastated" and estimated repair costs would be more than $400m (£302m).
And the governor of the neighbouring Dinagat islands, Arlene Bag-ao, said the region had been "levelled to the ground" by the typhoon.
"The fields and boats of our farmers and fisherfolk have been decimated," she said in a Facebook message quoted by news site Rappler. "[W]e have lost our homes. Walls and roofs were torn and blown off…. We have a dwindling supply of food and water. Electricity and telecommunications are down. This is why we urgently and humbly ask for everyone's help."
She said the damage "is reminiscent of, if not worse than, when Yolanda hit our province". More than 6,000 people died after that storm - also known as Typhoon Haiyan - hit the country in 2013.
On average about 20 storms and typhoons strike the Philippines each year.
The storm comes as the nation prepares for Christmas, a major holiday in the Philippines. More than 80% of the population declare themselves to be Catholic.
The latest update from the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said that while Typhoon Rai has now passed west of the island nation, it is intensifying again.
Current predictions suggest it will head towards Vietnam before turning north towards China, Pagasa said.
Typhoon Rai is the most powerful storm to hit the Philippines this year.
What makes this storm so significant is the power it sustained as it moved across nine different land masses in the Southern Philippines.
Island after island, from Siargao to Palawan - a distance of more than 800km (500 miles) - was battered by relentless winds and exceptionally heavy rainfall.
Charities here have been quick to link the storm's ferocity to global warming.
Greenpeace Philippines warned that "as the climate crisis worsens… these typhoons will get worse, more unpredictable, and more destructive."
The Philippine Red Cross called Rai a "monster storm" and expressed concern that climate change is making typhoons "more ferocious".
Although not as strong as 2013's Super Typhoon Haiyan, which killed more than 6,000 people and devastated vast tracts of land in the Philippines, Rai took many by surprise - strengthening to immense power in the final hours of its approach towards the country.
Videos and imagery depicting new arms belonging to different military units transiting towards bases close to the Ukrainian border are being shared by open source-researchers almost daily.
It comes as part of a renewed phase of Russian military build-up in the area that initially began in March this year, researchers say.
Sky News spoke to analysts about the open-source evidence available around two of the sites and asked what it can tell us about the situation on the border.
Among them are Buk air defence systems. The weapon gained notoriety after it was used by Russian separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine to shoot down a passenger flight in 2014, killing all on board.
A video, posted last week, was filmed at a station used to unload equipment for the Pogonovo training ground, just south of Voronezh.
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It's one of a series of videos circulating online showing assets believed to belong to the 41st Combined Arms Army, usually based in central Russia, headed to the site.
"The unit appears to be carrying live ammunition - we saw several trucks carrying cylinders that match those used to carry missiles for the air defence platforms we identified," global intelligence company Janes told Sky News.
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Whether or not these air defence systems would be used at this camp is unclear, Janes added.
But it is unusual for a significant quantity of missiles to be at a site like Pogonovo. And the presence of both the defence systems and their artillery indicates an "army-level" deployment at the camp, according to Janes.
The Pogonovo camp is one of the primary locations in the recent stage of the build-up.
Military hardware began being transported from the central part of Russia into the border region with Ukraine in March and April this year.
Equipment was moved there during this early stage, before some was transported north to another camp at Yelnya in the latest phase of the military build-up, which began at the end of October.
It's estimated there could now be as many as 92,000 Russian troops at camps across the border area.
While larger camps like Pogonovo and Yelnya are well documented, analysts have also identified activity at a number of smaller camps in the border region.
Satellite imagery from the end of November obtained by one researcher shows a camp just over 60 miles from the border, near the city of Kursk.
Since then, videos showing assets being transported by train in the Kursk region have circulated online.
Image:A video originally posted on TikTok and shared by an open-source researcher on Twitter shows equipment moving by train in the Kursk region. Pic:TikTok
"From what we’ve seen so far it appears we are looking at the build-up of another combined arms army camp from an army not previously identified as taking part in this phase of the build-up, the 6th Combined Arms Army," Janes told Sky News.
The unit usually operates over 700 miles away, in the Leningrad Oblast.
The camp near Kursk is just one of the smaller sites picked up by open-source researchers in the recent weeks. The emergence of such camps is a phenomenon that was not observed in the March/April phase of the build-up.
"Smaller camps are harder to detect and can increase in size slowly, which matches with what we’ve seen when units are deploying - slowly and often at night," said Janes.
"This differs significantly from the spring build-up, when units were being deployed at a much higher frequency, in larger numbers, and during all hours."
While the camp near Kursk does not yet have army-level deployment like Pogonovo, it could do in the future. But Janes say it's too early to tell.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
At least 27 people are feared to have died after a fire broke out in a building in downtown Osaka, Japan.
Police are investigating whether the blaze was started deliberately, public broadcaster NHK said.
They are investigating reports that a man spilled liquid that started the fire.
The victims suffered cardiopulmonary arrest, a term often used in preliminary reports before a death is officially confirmed, reports say.
Footage showed blackened windows after dozens of firefighters extinguished the blaze on the fourth floor.
All of those feared dead were reportedly in a psychiatric clinic on the fourth floor of the building, located in a busy commercial and entertainment district.
A man who appeared to be in his 50s or 60s was seen carrying a bag of liquid into the building, before knocking it over near a heater, spilling the liquid and starting the fire, Kyodo News reported.
The man was rushed to hospital and is in a critical condition, NHK reported.
Emergency services were alerted shortly after 10:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on Friday.
"There was lots of dark smoke," one eyewitness told NHK, adding: "There was a very strong smell, too."
Another witness said she saw a woman in the building calling for help.
"When I looked outside I saw orange flames at the fourth-floor window," she told Kyodo News. "A woman was waving her hands for help from the sixth floor."
Some people were evacuated from the building by fire crews using ladders.
Reuters
The blaze was successfully extinguished within half an hour, after it burned across an area of approximately 20 sq m (215 sq ft), the local fire department said.
No damage has been reported to other floors within the building or any neighbouring properties.
Last year, Japan saw one of its worst mass casualty incidents since World War Two after a man set fire to a film studio in Kyoto in 2019, killing 36 people.
