The blaze erupted at about 5 a.m. on the third floor of a residential apartment block in Magaluf, a popular holiday destination on the southwestern coast of Mallorca, according to Spain’s Civil Guard.

Residents initially attempted to extinguish the fire before emergency services arrived, but the flames spread rapidly through the building, particularly to the upper floors. More than a dozen occupants were evacuated as firefighters worked to contain the blaze.

Emergency crews brought the fire under control and extinguished it approximately two hours after it began.

Nine people were transported to medical facilities for treatment related to smoke inhalation, a Civil Guard spokesperson said.

Authorities identified one of the victims as a 58-year-old Argentine national. The second victim was a woman whose identity had not yet been established. Officials said the two were found in separate apartments within the building.

Investigators have opened an inquiry to determine the cause of the fire.

The incident occurred in Magaluf, one of Mallorca’s best-known beach and nightlife destinations, particularly popular among British and German tourists. The resort is located in the municipality of Calvià, about 22 kilometers west of Palma, the capital of Spain’s Balearic Islands.

Local authorities declared two days of mourning following the tragedy as emergency services and investigators continued work at the scene.

Police said hotel owner Lavkesh Bajaj was taken into custody late Wednesday, hours after the blaze engulfed the Flourish Stay hotel in the capital’s Malviya Nagar area.

Authorities said at least 21 people died in the fire, including several foreign nationals. Two victims have been identified as citizens of Liberia and Mozambique.

Witnesses said some trapped guests jumped from upper floors onto mattresses placed below as flames spread through the building. Several survivors were hospitalized with severe burns and injuries sustained while escaping.

The incident has renewed concerns over fire safety standards in India, where deadly building fires are frequently linked to inadequate safety measures and poor enforcement of regulations.

In a separate incident on Thursday, four people were killed in a fire that broke out in an intensive care unit at a hospital in Muzaffarpur, in the eastern state of Bihar, local officials said.

The building housed a restaurant on the ground floor and a hotel above. Firefighters deployed eight fire engines to contain the blaze and rescued more than 40 people, who were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment.

Authorities said the cause of the fire was not immediately known and an investigation is underway.

Television images showed thick smoke engulfing the building as trapped occupants called for help from windows. Local residents joined emergency crews in rescue efforts, helping evacuate people and carry the injured to safety.

Local media reported that some of those killed were foreign nationals who had traveled to India for medical treatment and were staying in nearby accommodations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed condolences to the victims’ families and announced financial assistance of 200,000 rupees ($2,088) for the families of those killed.

The incident is the latest in a series of deadly fires in India, where safety violations and poor enforcement of building regulations remain a recurring concern.

The accident occurred on a road linking the Swat region with Peshawar after a passenger bus suffered a mechanical fault and was forced to stop along the roadside. Passengers had exited the vehicle and were waiting nearby when an approaching van veered into the crowd and struck both the stranded travelers and the parked bus.

Bilal Ahmad Faizi, a rescue official, said at least 17 people were killed in the collision, while more than 10 others sustained injuries. He added that three of the injured were in critical condition.

Muhammad Ali, a doctor at a local hospital treating victims from the crash, confirmed the death toll.
Emergency responders transported the injured to nearby medical facilities as authorities worked to identify victims and determine the circumstances that led to the van losing control.

Many of those involved in the accident were traveling home ahead of Eid, one of the most significant religious holidays in the Muslim calendar, a period that typically sees a sharp increase in road traffic across Pakistan.

Fatal road accidents remain a persistent challenge in the country, where authorities and safety experts have long cited weak enforcement of traffic regulations, excessive speeding, inadequate road safety measures and reckless driving as major contributors to high casualty rates.

The deadliest accident occurred in central Kampong Chhnang province, about 60 km (37 miles) north of Phnom Penh, when a heavy cargo truck collided with an open-top vehicle carrying garment factory workers to work, killing nine people and injuring 53 others, according to Cambodia’s Labor Ministry.

In a separate incident in southeastern Svay Rieng province, a major garment manufacturing hub near the Vietnamese border, a bus transporting workers veered off the road and overturned. Five workers were killed and 40 others were injured, authorities said.

Most of the victims in both accidents were women employed in Cambodia’s garment industry, one of the country’s largest employers and a key source of foreign exchange earnings.

The Labor Ministry said it was “deeply shocked” by the two accidents, which occurred on the same day, and called for stricter adherence to traffic regulations to reduce road fatalities.

Worker transportation remains a longstanding safety challenge in Cambodia, where many laborers travel to factories aboard modified flatbed or open-top trucks that often lack adequate seating and safety protections. The vehicles are widely used because they offer a low-cost transportation option for workers earning relatively modest wages.

Cambodia’s garment sector, which includes clothing, footwear and travel goods manufacturing, employs between 800,000 and 1 million workers across roughly 1,900 factories. The industry generated more than $15.5 billion in export revenue last year, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.

Factory workers typically earn between $200 and $300 per month, including overtime pay, making affordable transportation a critical issue for both employees and employers.

Road safety remains a major public concern in the Southeast Asian nation. According to Cambodia’s Transport Ministry, traffic accidents claimed 1,467 lives in 2025, making road crashes the leading cause of accidental deaths in the country.

The latest fatalities are likely to renew scrutiny of worker transport practices and broader road safety standards as Cambodia seeks to sustain growth in its export-oriented manufacturing sector.

The crash occurred near the Airport Rail Link’s Makkasan station when the container freight train struck the bus after it became trapped on the tracks at a red light, according to Deputy Transport Minister Siripong Angkasakulkiat.

Preliminary findings indicated the bus had stopped on the crossing, preventing the rail barriers from closing before the train approached, Siripong told reporters.
“The train was unable to stop in time to avoid colliding with the bus,” he said, adding that all eight fatalities were passengers aboard the bus.

Emergency crews and firefighters rushed to the scene as flames spread through the bus and nearby vehicles on Asok-Din Daeng Road. Rescue workers pulled injured passengers from the wreckage while fire crews battled the blaze with water hoses.

Videos circulating on social media showed the train striking the bus and dragging multiple vehicles along the tracks before the fire erupted.

A witness, motorcycle taxi driver Wanthong Kokpho, told Reuters the bus had been immobilized by traffic at the crossing.

“The bus was stuck at a red light, so it couldn’t move,” he said. “The fire broke out immediately.”

Officials said the fire was later brought under control as emergency teams continued cooling operations and searched the site for additional victims.
Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the collision.

Thailand has one of the world’s highest road fatality rates, according to the World Health Organization, with safety experts frequently citing weak enforcement of traffic and transport regulations.

The survivors, who said their vessel had initially carried 105 people, were found clinging to the wreckage of an overturned boat before being taken aboard nearby ships, according to Mediterranea Saving Humans and Sea-Watch. The bodies and survivors were later transferred to an Italian coast guard patrol boat and brought to the island of Lampedusa.

Italy’s interior ministry declined to comment on the incident, while the Italian Coast Guard did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation. The rescue took place during Easter, a major holiday in Italy.

Footage released by Sea-Watch showed migrants struggling in open waters, with several individuals holding onto the partially submerged orange hull as rescuers approached.

The central Mediterranean route, one of the world’s deadliest migration corridors, has been further complicated this year by adverse weather conditions. Rough seas have reduced the number of departures from North Africa but increased the risks for those attempting the journey.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that at least 683 people have died along the central Mediterranean route so far this year, marking one of the highest death tolls recorded since 2014.

The quake hit at 8:42 p.m. local time (1612 GMT) at a depth of 186 km, with its epicentre in Badakhshan Province, according to the United States Geological Survey.

Afghanistan’s health ministry said the fatalities occurred in the Gosfand Dara area of Kabul Province, where a single family was buried under the impact of the tremor. “Eight members of a family died as a result of the earthquake,” ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman said in a statement.

He added that a child, estimated to be around two years old, survived but was injured. The country’s disaster management agency confirmed the child had sustained injuries during the incident.

Journalists reported that the tremors were felt in Kabul and other parts of the country, though no immediate wider casualty figures were released.

Afghanistan lies along the seismically active Hindu Kush region, where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates converge, making earthquakes a frequent occurrence.

The latest quake follows a series of deadly seismic events in recent years, including an August tremor that killed more than 2,200 people in eastern Afghanistan after devastating remote mountain communities.

State news agencies TASS and RIA, citing the ministry, said the aircraft lost communication before going down on the Black Sea peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The ministry said the dead included 23 passengers and six crew members, with no survivors reported.“The An-26 aircraft, with which communication was lost earlier, crashed into a cliff,” TASS quoted officials at the crash site as saying.

Authorities located the wreckage in Crimea, though further operational details were not immediately disclosed.Russia’s defense ministry did not provide additional comment outside regular business hours.

RIA news agency reported that, according to an initial assessment, technical problems were believed to have caused the crash.

No confirmation was given on whether an official investigation had been launched or if other factors were being examined.

The An-26 is a Soviet-era twin-engine turboprop widely used for military transport and logistics operations.