Tragedy has struck a British family holidaying in Australia after a father and his nine-year-old son were killed by a landslide while hiking and the mother and another son were critically injured.
A 15-year-old girl from the same family survived and walked away from the scene - with the support of emergency services staff - in a remote part of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, officers added.
She was later treated for shock.
The boy and his 49-year-old father died on the Wentworth Falls hiking track, west of Sydney on Monday, New South Wales police said.
The family's 50-year-old mother and a second son, who is 14, were treated at the scene by critical care paramedics before being airlifted out of the valley by a rescue helicopter, New South Wales ambulance spokesman Stewart Clarke told reporters.
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After being assessed, they would be taken to "the most appropriate hospital," Mr Clarke added, with surgery a possibility.
He called the situation "heartbreaking", adding that the patients had "significant head and abdominal injuries" and had to be sedated and intubated to help them breathe before being winched to safety.
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The five were holidaying in Australia, police said, some of the four million tourists drawn to the Blue Mountains National Park each year.
Weeks of wet weather in Sydney preceded the landslip, leaving the area "extremely dangerous and unstable" for rescuers, Mr Clarke said.
Detective Superintendent John Nelson, from the Blue Mountains area command, called it "a tragic scene", adding that rescuers were "working under quite arduous conditions.
"A girl is walking out at the moment, who is obviously clearly [and] extremely distressed," he said.
Officers would try to speak to her to find out what happened, he said.
Weather conditions were reasonable, he said, adding that he understood the hiking trail was open at the time.
Emergency services were called to Wentworth Pass around 1.40pm, after being contacted by someone who was "in or near the group", Mr Clarke said.
Police helicopters, local officers and a specialist rescue team were deployed to the remote location in dense bushland, about a 90-minute walk from the car park.
The injured pair were winched out about 6pm, Mr Clarke said.
"[It is] exceptionally confronting and heartbreaking, especially when you start involving children," he said.
Ambulance chaplains and police support officers also attended "to support our people", Mr Clarke added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called the Russian military "killers, executioners, rapists, marauders who call themselves an army" in his latest address.
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He went on to accuse them of carrying out "a genocide" as reports emerged of hundreds of bodies found in Ukrainian towns before they were liberated, including Bucha near Kyiv.
Mr Zelenskyy said: "To talk about the discoveries in Bucha and our other cities from where the occupiers were expelled. Hundreds of people killed, tortured, executed civilians. Bodies on the streets. Booby-trapped area. Even the bodies of the dead are booby-trapped. Widespread aftermath of looting.
"Concentrated evil has visited our land. The killers, executioners, rapists, marauders who call themselves an army - and who deserve only death after what they've done."
Image:Bucha is a city near Kyiv, where Russia has scaled back military operations
Images emerged on Sunday of Ukrainian civilians lying on the streets of Bucha with witnesses saying the victims were killed by Russian forces without any apparent provocation.
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Bucha's mayor, Anatoly Fedoruk, said more than 300 residents had been killed.
Sky News verified and confirmed the location of two videos showing bodies on the streets of Bucha, including one where at least seven bodies are seen on the road and on the pavement, while satellite images from Maxar appear to show a mass grave in the town on 31 March.
Ukrainian prosecutors investigating possible war crimes by Russia said they have found 410 bodies in towns near Kyiv and 140 of them had been examined.
Some of the victims had their hands tied and were shot in the back of the head, Ukrainian authorities said.
Key developments:
Russian forces accused of genocide and war crimes in Bucha;
Ukraine's top prosecutor says 410 bodies found in towns near Kyiv;
Moscow denies its forces killed civilians in Bucha;
Ukraine's military says Russian units have withdrawn from areas in the country's north;
Kyiv says its forces have taken full control of town of Pripyat just outside decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Image:A woman points to a makeshift grave of a man killed by Russian forces, according to residents, and buried outside a building in Bucha. Pic AP
Ukrainian officials laid the blame for the killings squarely at the feet of Russian troops, with Mr Zelenskky calling them evidence of "a genocide".
But Russia's Defence Ministry rejected the accusations of atrocities against civilians in Bucha and other suburbs of Kyiv, claiming they were a "provocation".
Western officials have condemned the reports and vowed to work with Ukraine and the International Criminal Court to "ensure those responsible are convicted".
Human Rights Watch said on Sunday that it has documented "apparent war crimes" committed by Russian forces against civilians in Ukraine.
It said it had found "several cases" of war violations in Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Kyiv, including cases of "rape, murder and other violent acts against people in the Russian forces' custody".
Image:Satellite images of the Ukrainian town of Bucha show a trench about 45ft long dug into the grounds of a church
Russian forces are continuing to "consolidate and reorganise" as they refocus their offensive into the Donbas region in Ukraine's east, where they are being joined by Wagner mercenaries, according to the UK's Ministry of Defence.
UN Security Council to meet on Tuesday
Mr Zelenskyy has called on former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to visit Bucha and "see what the policy of concessions to Russia has led to in 14 years".
The United Nations Security Council is expected to meet on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Ukraine, where, according to Mr Zelenskyy, Russia's alleged war crimes will be discussed.
Image:Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv
Meanwhile, the South Asian news agency ANI reported that Russia's first deputy envoy to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, requested a meeting with the council on Monday.
Mr Polyansky called for the meeting after the "blatant provocation by Ukrainian radicals in Bucha" and said Moscow will expose "the Ukrainian instigators and their Western patrons".
PM calls on tougher NATO response
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has condemned Russia's "despicable attacks" on civilians, adding the UK is "stepping up" its sanctions and military support.
He will also seek to galvanise a tougher response from Western allies, including NATO members, against Russia.
On its 73rd anniversary on Monday, Mr Johnson will hail NATO as the "greatest security alliance in the history of the world" - adding that it has a responsibility to support the Ukrainian people as they fight for freedom with "every fibre of their being".
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Bucha killings are 'genocide'
Representatives from the Polish and German governments will visit and meet Mr Johnson at Downing Street this week to discuss NATO and how to support Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the European Council's President Charles Michel said the European Union is preparing further sanctions following the actions of Russian forces in Bucha.
Shocked by haunting images of atrocities committed by Russian army in Kyiv liberated region #BuchaMassacre
EU is assisting #Ukraine & NGO’s in gathering of necessary evidence for pursuit in international courts.
"Shocked by haunting images of atrocities committed by the Russian army in Kyiv liberated region," Mr Michel said on Twitter on Sunday. "Further EU sanctions & support are on their way. EU is assisting Ukraine & NGOs in gathering of the necessary evidence for pursuit in international courts."
During his latest address, Mr Zelenskyy alluded to the sanctions, saying "there will be a new package" of sanctions against Russia but said "that's not enough" and "more conclusions are needed".
"Our musicians wear body armour instead of tuxedos. They sing to the wounded in hospitals, even to those who can't hear them," he said. "But the music will break through anyway."
The EU is preparing to introduce more sanctions against Moscow after reports of atrocities emerged in the wake of Russia’s military retreat from the outskirts of Kyiv.
Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said further sanctions were “on their way” in response to Russia’s actions in Bucha, a city about 25km north-west of central Kyiv that was under Russian occupation until recently.
“Shocked by haunting images of atrocities committed by Russian army in Kyiv liberated region,” Michel said on Twitter on Sunday. “Further EU sanctions & support are on their way. EU is assisting Ukraine & NGOs in gathering of necessary evidence for pursuit in international courts.”
EU ambassadors are expected to discuss the fresh round of measures on Wednesday, according to a diplomat with knowledge of the plans.
The pledge for more punitive measures against Russia follows strong western condemnation of alleged Russian war crimes on unarmed Ukrainian civilians in recently liberated areas around Kyiv, as Moscow shifts its war focus to the country’s east.
Emine Dzheppar, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, said soldiers who had retaken Bucha from Russian forces reported “numerous civilians shot dead”.
“Some of [the] victims have their hands tied. Innocent victims. They didn’t deserve that,” she said.
In the nearby village of Motyzhyn, Russian soldiers also “did terrible things”, she added. “Their cruelty is limitless. Before Ukrainian troops arrived, [the] Russian army killed as many civilians as possible. Inhuman. Terrible. Speechless.”
Images from Bucha were “unbearable”, French president Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter, expressing “compassion” to the “hundreds of civilians cowardly assassinated”. German chancellor Olaf Scholz described “terrible and grisly” scenes emerging from the town, mentioning “roads littered with corpses”.
“You can’t help but see these images as a punch to the gut,” said US secretary of state Antony Blinken, urging the global community against becoming “numb”. Liz Truss, British foreign secretary, also said she was “appalled by atrocities in Bucha and other towns”, adding the UK was collecting evidence of war crimes.
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock vowed to “intensify sanctions against Russia and provide even more support for the defence of Ukraine”, while her French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian called for “the strongest possible international economic pressure” on Moscow.
Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas asked for “a fifth round of strong EU sanctions as soon as possible”.
Existing EU measures include banning seven Russian banks from the global Swift payments network, a block on exports of key technologies to Russia including for the defence, energy, telecoms and aviation sectors, a ban on Russian airlines from its airspace, and asset freezes against hundreds of Russian oligarchs and officials, including Putin.
Future measures proposed by some member states include more individual sanctions, a ban on Russian ships using EU ports, more export restrictions and embargoes on energy supplies such as coal, oil or gas — long demanded by Ukraine but previously resisted by some major European economies.
Calls for the sanctions to target Russian energy exports — on which the EU heavily depends — have grown louder. In Italy, one of the EU countries most reliant on Russian gas, Enrico Letta, chief of the centre-left Democratic party, a junior partner in prime minister Mario Draghi’s national unity government, called for a “full oil and gas Russia embargo”.
Buying Russian oil and gas was “financing war crimes”, said Lithuania’s foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis. The Baltic country declared it was the first in the EU to stop gas imports from Moscow. “Dear EU friends, pull the plug. Don’t be an accomplice,” he added.
Russia’s ministry of defence on Sunday denied accusations of murdering civilians in Bucha, describing the claims as a “provocation”.
“During the time this settlement was under the control of the Russian armed forces, not a single local resident suffered from any violent actions,” it said in a statement, adding that photos and videos of atrocities are “another production of the Kyiv regime for the western media”.
Human Rights Watch said it had documented several cases of unlawful violence it described as “apparent war crimes”, including in the Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Kyiv regions.
The New York-based group said the cases it documented, which included summary executions and rape, indicated “unspeakable, deliberate cruelty and violence against Ukrainian civilians” which should be investigated as war crimes.
Gyunduz Mamedov, a former deputy prosecutor-general of Ukraine and specialist in international criminal law who has visited Irpin and Bucha, said that, in addition to the widespread destruction of infrastructure, he had seen corpses of civilians and freshly dug graves marked with crosses.
He said about 50 per cent of the buildings in Irpin had been damaged and about 300 civilians killed during the Russian offensive.
Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said such “brutality against civilians” had not been seen in Europe for decades, adding that it was “extremely important” for the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into potential war crimes in Ukraine.
Carla Del Ponte, the former chief prosecutor of UN war crimes tribunals, called on Saturday for an international arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, describing the Russian president as a “war criminal”.
Meanwhile, Russian negotiators handling peace talks between the two countries said there would be fresh discussions on Monday. Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation, said Russia accepted the Ukrainian position with the exception of its stance on Crimea.
Additional reporting by Nastassia Astrasheuskayain Riga, Guy Chazan in Berlin, Richard Milne in Oslo, Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe in London and Lauren Fedor in Washington
At least six people have been killed and 10 injured in a shooting in the centre of Sacramento, police in California's state capital say.
People fled through the streets after rapid gunfire rang out in an area packed with restaurants and bars in the early hours of Sunday.
Police nearby responded to the gunfire and came across a "very large crowd", police chief Katherine Lester said.
No suspect is yet in custody in the wake of the shootings.
"This is a really tragic situation," Chief Lester said.
The officer said investigators had arrived at the scene and urged the public to come forward with any information that might help identify those responsible.
The shooting took place at around 02:00 (09:00 GMT) in an area at 10th Street and K that leads to the Golden One Center, where the Sacramento Kings play basketball.
It is also only a few streets from the state Capitol building.
Community activist Berry Accius reached the scene at about 02:30 after a city council member called him about the shooting.
"The first thing I saw was like victims," he was quoted as saying by CBS News.
"I saw a young girl with a whole bunch of blood in her body, a girl taking off glass from her, a young girl screaming saying, 'They killed my sister.' A mother running up, 'Where's my son, has my son been shot?'"
Kay Harris, 32, said she was asleep when one of her family members called to say they thought her brother had been killed. She said she thought he was at London, a nightclub at 1009 10th Street, the Associated Press reports.
She said she has been to the club a few times and described it as a place for "the younger crowd".
The incident is certain to inflame the ongoing debate about gun violence and the prevalence of lethal weapons in US society.
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Poland and the Baltic countries are proposing new punitive measures against the Russian economy, arguing that initial rounds of EU sanctions have failed in their stated goal of ending President Vladimir Putin's ability to wage war.
In the days after the invasion, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised to “cripple Putin’s ability to finance his war machine” and to ruin Russia’s economy. But frustration is running high that the Russian leader is still keeping his head well above water financially; Europe still pays Russia hundreds of millions of euros a day for energy, and the ruble has bounced back to pre-war levels.
“Some EU leaders are treating the sanctions as a smokescreen for their inaction,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki tweeted today. “The sanctions are supposed to bring Ukraine peace, not to appease Europe’s guilty conscience.”
The Central and Eastern Europeans are at odds with their Western European counterparts over how hard to turn the screws now. Poland is proposing a prohibitively high tariff on Russian fuels, while Estonia is suggesting a special escrow account that will hold some of the payments for Russian energy until Russian forces withdraw from Ukraine.
The Western Europeans, by contrast, want to avoid such drastic steps and officials in Brussels are now preparing compliance measures to enforce existing penalties. European leaders last week agreed only to focus on implementation of the current sanctions and closing loopholes in them. “All our efforts should be on enforcing these sanctions and preventing circumvention and evasion,” von der Leyen said last week.
As far as Poland and the Baltic nations see it, it is a mistake not to ramp up the pressure now. They point to the worsening humanitarian situation in Ukraine and to demands from the Ukrainian government itself. “Russia keeps bombing Ukrainian cities and murdering civilians, therefore sanctions must further increase,” Ukrainian Foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba told his French counterpart this week.
“We have taken a bit of a pause, but the feeling from our point is that the pause is lasting too long,” said one senior EU diplomat. “We have to continue putting pressure on the Russian regime.”
Second-best options
Calls from Poland and the Baltics for an all-out ban on Russian energy — or at least an embargo on Russian oil — are being blocked by Germany and others, so they are now scrambling for second-best options.
“Far-reaching sanctions such as an energy ban will probably stay in the fridge for now,” the senior diplomat said. “There is no unity to move further. But that doesn’t mean we can’t move ahead with other things.”
This week, Morawiecki said Poland will end all imports of Russian energy by the end of the year. The government will move first with a ban on coal, which Poland wants to enter into force in April or May at the latest. He called on other EU countries to do the same. “This is our plan for the EU — to snatch this weapon from Putin’s hands, from Russia’s hands,” Morawiecki said.
The European Commission is currently “assessing” the announcements from the Polish government, a Commission spokesperson said.
Poland also called on the European Commission to introduce a tariff on Russian fossil fuels, as Brussels has exclusive competences over the EU’s trade policy. A Polish official said “detailed proposals on this solution are being prepared.”
“We would like to make import of Russian fossil fuels unprofitable; this is where these proposals are coming from. However, we’ll keep on convincing our partners to support an embargo on Russian fossil fuels,” the official added.
Estonia is pushing another compromise, urging Brussels to hold back part of Russia’s energy income in a special account that Moscow could only access once Russia had pulled back its army. Fulminating that the EU had paid Russia €22 billion since the beginning of the war, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas this week wrote a letter to von der Leyen, seen by POLITICO, proposing the escrow system after she unsuccessfully pushed for the idea in last week’s European Council meeting with fellow heads of state and government.
Poland and the Baltics also called on the Commission for a ban on truck traffic to and from Russia and Belarus and restrictions on vessels’ access to EU ports. In a letter to the Commission last week and obtained by POLITICO the countries also asked that Russia and Belarus be excluded from international arrangements aimed at easing cross-border truck traffic.
New sanctions packages
Despite this mounting pressure from countries feeling the heat of Russian aggression, the focus in Brussels remains on closing the loopholes of the sanctions already in place.
“We have to look backwards to see what kind of impact the measures that we have already taken” have had, Portugal's outgoing Ambassador to the EU Nuno Brito said, and “what kind of loopholes we still have.”
Therefore, the European Commission is preparing a “compliance package,” according to four EU diplomats and officials.
Amongst other things, this could focus on listing family members of oligarchs to avoid circumvention of the sanctions, the strengthening of export controls and potentially more sanctions against Russian propaganda channels, on top of the earlier sanctions against Kremlin-backed media RT and Sputnik.
In parallel, the Commission is also preparing further-reaching sanctions in case the EU needs to move fast, for example as a reaction to a chemical attack by Russia. But how such a broader sanctions package would go depends on the trigger and more consultation with EU countries, taking into account their sensitivities.
“There are a lot of ideas floating around but it’s unclear for us which measures will be part of the next package and which won’t. It will also depend on the trigger of course,” said another EU diplomat.
Zosia Wanat, Zia Weise, Hanne Cokelaere, Stuart Lau and Jacopo Barigazzi contributed reporting.
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