World Briefs: Blaze at London’s Mandarin Oriental

Blaze at London's Mandarin Oriental

LONDON • More than 100 firefighters were yesterday deployed to tackle a blaze at Central London's Mandarin Oriental hotel that pumped smoke high into the air over the British capital.

The fire brigade said "around 120 firefighters" and 20 fire engines were involved in tackling the fire on the roof of the 12-storey hotel in Knightsbridge, a luxury area where the Harrods department store is also located.

The fire service said the cause of the blaze was not clear while police said the hotel was being evacuated.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS


Sweden marks national day with massive drill

STOCKHOLM • Sweden, which marked national day yesterday, called up 22,000 reservists for an exercise of a scale not seen in 40 years as tensions simmer between the West and Russia.

A total of 40 battalions were carrying out nationwide snap drill manoeuvres to ramp up military security at a time when once cordial post-Cold War relations with Moscow have cooled.

The army hopes at least half of Sweden's reservists will respond to the first mass call-up since 1975 for primarily land-based surveillance, defence and logistics tasks.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE


Woman dies after eating hepatitis A-tainted fruit

LONDON • A 64-year-old Australian woman has died after contracting hepatitis A from a packet of frozen pomegranate, the BBC reported.

Creative Gourmet's pomegranates have been linked to 24 cases of hepatitis A across Australia. The local authorities had issued a warning about the product in April, urging buyers to discard the frozen fruit after about 2,000 packets of the Egyptian-grown pomegranate arils were sold. South Australia chief medical officer Paddy Phillips said the woman's death is the only one linked to the recalled product nationally so far.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on June 07, 2018, with the headline World Briefs: Blaze at London’s Mandarin Oriental. Subscribe