World

Russia said Tuesday that a technical malfunction had caused a military plane to crash a day earlier into a residential building near Ukraine, killing over a dozen people and spurring an outpouring among locals.

The crash late Monday ignited a towering blaze in the Soviet-style housing block, but by morning rescue workers were clearing the charred debris and grieving locals were leaving flowers at a memorial.

Authorities reported a 15th death on Tuesday due to the Sukhoi Su-34 aircraft’s slamming into the building in Yeysk, which sits across a narrow part of the Azov Sea from the Russian-held port of Mariupol in Ukraine.

A Yeysk resident told state television channel Rossiya-24 that two of her friends who had only recently bought a flat in the building were killed.

“They just took a mortgage. We are in mourning,” she said. 

Nineteen people were injured, four of them — including a five-year-old girl and a teenage boy — were critically wounded, a regional official said.

Investigators announced they were questioning the pilots, who managed to parachute out of the plane before it crashed into the nine-storey building, engulfing it in flames.

Amateur footage on social media showed locals running to one of the pilots who lay on the ground, still attached to his parachute. 

The southern seaside town was in shock. 

One local, Natalia Kush, told state media she had seen the pilot ejecting from the jet from her window.

– ‘A terrible noise’ –

“I heard a terrible explosion. I looked outside and I saw the pilot flying right by me,” she told the Rossiya 24 news channel, visibly shaken. 

The Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said it had launched a criminal enquiry into flight safety violations.

“The pilots who managed to eject, as well as the airfield personnel, are being questioned,” the investigators said. 

It also said it had “seized fuel samples at the departure aerodrome” and “flight recorders at the site of the crash”.

On Monday, Russia’s defence ministry said the jet collided with the block, which was home to around 600 people, during a training flight.

Veniamin Kondratiev, the governor of the Krasnodar region that includes Yeysk, said that the region will have a three-day period of mourning.

He said residents of the building had been put in temporary accommodation and were receiving psychological help. 

Locals meanwhile were leaving flowers and children’s toys at a makeshift memorial near the building, where a black board read “Yeysk. 17.10.2022. We remember. We mourn.”

Locals placed red roses, candles and smiling teddy bears around the board, in memory of the three children killed by the crash. 

The Kremlin said Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin “expresses deep condolences to those families who lost their loves ones as a result of this disaster.”

Images of the dramatic crash showed the burnt-out fuselage of the plane, which snapped in two on impact.

One of its mangled wings bore a red star — the symbol of the Russian army.

The remains of wrecked parked cars littered the foot of the building, trapped when the blaze engulfed at least five of its floors.

Thousands of people took to the streets across France on Tuesday and commuters faced delays as unions staged a nationwide strike for higher salaries, as they remain in deadlock with the government over walkouts at oil depots that have sparked fuel shortages.

“It’s a shame it had to come to blockades for something to happen,” said Nadine, a 45-year-old employee in the metalworking industry who was among more than 1,000 demonstrators in Strasbourg, northeast France.

“But today if we don’t block anything, no one listens,” she said.

Among a crowd of some 1,800 marching in the southern city of Montpellier, Magali Mallet, a medical secretary, said she was there because many workers were “living on a knife’s edge”.

A transport walkout did not cause major disruptions nationwide, despite making commuters travelling into the capital from its suburbs late on Tuesday morning.

The broader strike comes after workers at several oil refineries and depots operated by energy giant TotalEnergies voted to extend walkouts.

Their industrial action has seriously disrupted fuel distribution across the country, particularly in northern and central France and the Paris region.

Motorists have scrambled to fill tanks as the fuel strike, which has lasted for nearly three weeks, has had a knock-on effect across all sectors of the economy.

– ‘Serious consequences’ –

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said that less than a quarter of petrol stations nationwide were experiencing shortages, down from 30 percent previously.

President Emmanuel Macron’s government used requisitioning powers to force some strikers back to open fuel depots, a move that infuriated unions but has so far been upheld in the courts.

But his government is also pushing bosses to acknowledge salary demands, with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin saying Tuesday that there was “a salary problem” in France, and urging employers “to increase pay when possible”.

Workers have also been striking in the nuclear power sector, potentially hampering efforts to restart reactors down for maintenance or safety work.

At the northern Gravelines nuclear plant, 32-year-old technician Henia Abidi said she was not usually one to protest.

“But now since it’s about inflation and our salaries, I really feel concerned. I won’t give up,” she said, adding that everything from food to fuel had become expensive.

Power grid operator RTE warned Tuesday that “any extension of the social movement” at the nuclear power stations would have “serious consequences” on electricity provision this winter.

Macron said last week only 30 out of 56 nuclear reactors were online, while the country hoped to have 45 working by January.

But French state energy provider EDF said Saturday it was postponing plans to bring five of the halted reactors back on stream.

The leftist CGT and FO unions called the nationwide strike Tuesday for higher salaries, and against government requisitions of oil installations.

The action is the unions’ biggest challenge to Macron since he won a new presidential term in May.

The Liberation newspaper published a front-page caricature of Macron swept off his feet and clinging on to the edge of a giant megaphone blasting the message of angry protesters.

– Tense autumn? –

Unions in other industries and in the public sector had also announced action to protest against the twin impact of soaring energy prices and overall inflation on the cost of living.

Beyond transport workers, unions had hoped to bring out staff in sectors such as the food industry and healthcare.

The education ministry said less than six percent of its workers had walked out, though that rate reached 23 percent for vocational schools.

Their action will kick off what could be a tense autumn and winter as Macron also seeks to implement his flagship domestic policy of raising the French retirement age.

The economic squeeze partly caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, along with the failure of Macron’s party to secure an overall majority in June legislative polls, only adds to the magnitude of the task.

A poll by the Elabe group found that one in three French people would be prepared to take part in a strike or protest in the coming weeks to demand pay increases as inflation soars. 

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The UK’s foreign office on Tuesday summoned a top Chinese diplomat in London over footage of a Hong Kong pro-democracy protester being assaulted in the grounds of a Chinese consulate in Britain.

The summons came after Beijing earlier Tuesday accused demonstrators of “illegally entering” the consulate in the northern British city of Manchester.

British police have said a group of men came out of the consulate during a peaceful demonstration on Sunday afternoon, dragging one of the protesters inside the grounds and assaulting him.

“The Foreign Secretary has issued a summons to the Chinese charge d’affaires at the Chinese Embassy in London to express… deep concern” over the incident “and to demand an explanation for the actions of the consulate staff”, a foreign office minister, Jesse Norman, told parliament.

But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the protesters were to blame and that “violation of the peace and dignity of China’s overseas embassies and consulates will not be tolerated”.

“The troublemakers illegally entered the Chinese Consulate-General in Manchester, endangering the security of the premises,” Wang said at a daily press briefing.

He urged the UK to “earnestly fulfil its duties and take effective measures to step up protection of the premises and personnel of the Chinese embassy and consulates”.

The man involved in the incident, who is in his 30s, sustained injuries and spent the night in hospital, local police said.

Video footage posted on Twitter showed a grey-haired man kicking protesters’ banners and scuffling with a group of demonstrators at the gates of the consulate.

A group of men were then shown punching a protester lying on the ground inside the mission’s gates.

The newly appointed chair of the UK parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Alicia Kearns, accused the Chinese consul-general Zheng Xiyuan, one of China’s most senior UK diplomats, of being at the scene and “ripping down posters and peaceful protest.”

China has not responded to the claims.

The BBC reported that the injured activist was from Hong Kong, which was engulfed by massive pro-democracy protests in 2019 before Beijing imposed a harsh national security law to mute dissent.

“They dragged me inside. They beat me up,” he told the broadcaster.

The protest took place as China opened its five-yearly Communist Party Congress, where President Xi Jinping is widely expected to be handed a historic third term in power.

Greater Manchester Police said in a statement that around 40 people had gathered outside the consulate for a planned peaceful protest.

Shortly before 4:00 pm (1500 GMT) “a small group of men came out of the building and a man was dragged into the consulate grounds and assaulted”, police said.

“Due to our fears for the safety of the man, officers intervened and removed the victim from the consulate grounds.”

– ‘Denial of free speech’ –

Police have said they had not made any arrests, and asked for witnesses to get in touch and pass on any footage of the incident.

Several senior British politicians have condemned the use of violence against a protester.

Kearns, tweeted that interior and foreign ministers Suella Braverman and James Cleverly “need to urgently investigate”.

The Chinese Communist Party “will not import their beating of protestors and denial of free speech to British streets”, she added.

And influential former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith called for the government to “demand a full apology from the Chinese ambassador to the UK”.

Nathan Law, a Hong Kong activist who has fled to the UK, tweeted: “If the consulate staff responsible are not held accountable, Hongkongers would live in fear of being kidnapped and persecuted.”

He called for Cleverly and Braverman to “investigate and protect our community and people in the UK”.

Six men accused of helping a gunman who carried out Austria’s first deadly jihadist attack on Tuesday all pleaded not guilty to the main charges as their trial opened in a Vienna court.

Convicted Islamic State group sympathiser Kujtim Fejzulai went on a shooting rampage on November 2, 2020 in downtown Vienna, killing four and wounding 23 others before police shot him dead.

In the wake of the EU member’s deadliest shooting in decades, the Austrian government and in particular its intelligence service were accused of failing to monitor the Islamist movement in the country.

The six defendants — four Austrians, a Chechen and a Kosovar — were not directly involved in the deadly attack, but are suspected of actively helping Fejzulai prepare for the shooting, prosecutors said.

The lead prosecutor, who cannot be named due to security concerns, said evidence painted an “unambigious and very clear picture” of the men’s involvement, describing the attack as “malicious, almost bestial”.

– ‘Scapegoats’ –

The six men — aged between 21 and 32 years old — are accused of “enabling… or otherwise promoting” the execution of the crimes “due to their shared affiliation with the radical Islamist scene and the terrorist organisation IS Islamic State,” according to the charge sheet.

The accused face charges ranging from participating in terrorist crimes in connection with murder to involvement or membership in a terrorist group.

Four of them could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty, while the two others face up to 20 years in jail with the prosecution demanding the maximum penalties.

All of them pleaded not guilty to the main charges, while two pleaded guilty to arms trafficking. 

Their lawyers argued they had been unaware of what Fejzulai intended to do.

With the help of some of the accused, the gunman — an Austrian citizen whose parents are from North Macedonia — was allegedly able to obtain the weapons and the ammunition needed for the attack, while others provided logistical aid or encouraged Fejzulai, according to prosecutors.

Their lawyers argued that the evidence was only “circumstantial”, with one of them saying “the chain of evidence is inconclusive and crumbles”.

Another accused prosecutors of trying to find “scapegoats” to hide the authorities’ failings to stop the attack.

At the start of the trial, all six were led into the crowded courtroom, escorted by armed guards under tight security. Cameras were barred from the room.

All except one have been held in custody on remand in the lead-up to the trial.

– ‘Ensure justice is done’ –

The trial is scheduled to resume at the beginning of December. Verdicts are not expected before February. 

Lawyer Mathias Burger, acting for the family of 21-year-old Nedzip Vrenezi, who was shot dead first by Fejzulai during the attack, told AFP in an interview ahead of the opening of the trial that the family “still suffers to this day” from what happened to their son. 

The victim’s family had received compensation from the Austrian state, but his clients’ main interest was to “ensure justice was done”, Burger said.

During the rampage, Fejzulai opened fire on passersby with a Kalashnikov in central Vienna.

In 2019, Fejzulai had been convicted and sentenced to 22 months in prison for trying to join the Islamic State group in Syria, before being arrested in Turkey and extradited to Austria.

Last year, Austria adopted a heavily criticised anti-terror law that was formulated in the wake of the attack and allows for increased surveillance.

Germany’s cybersecurity chief was sacked on Tuesday after a TV satire show accused him of having ties to Russian intelligence services, with the country on high alert over potential sabotage activities by Moscow.

Arne Schoenbohm, head of the Federal Cyber Security Authority (BSI), had been at the centre of intense speculation since the popular show accused him in early October of contacts with Russia.

He has now been relieved of his duties “with immediate effect”, an interior ministry spokesman told AFP on Tuesday, citing “the allegations revealed and widely discussed in the media” as one of the reasons behind the move.

The allegations “have permanently damaged the necessary public trust” in Schoenbohm as head of the authority, the spokesman said. 

“This is all the more true in the current crisis situation regarding Russian hybrid warfare,” he added.

Schoenbohm was accused in the satire show on broadcaster ZDF of contacts with Russian secret services through an association he co-founded in 2012 known as the Cyber Security Council Germany.

One member of that association, Berlin cybersecurity company Protelion, reportedly operated under the name “Infotecs GmbH” until the end of March. 

The report said this was a subsidiary of Russian cybersecurity company OAO Infotecs, founded by a former employee of the Russian KGB intelligence service.

According to other German media reports, Schoenbohm had maintained contact with the Cyber Security Council Germany until recently and the interior ministry had on August 24 approved a request for him to give a speech to the association.

The interior ministry spokesman on Tuesday said all allegations against Schoenbohm would be “thoroughly and emphatically examined and subjected to a detailed evaluation”. 

– ‘Great annoyance’ –

The cybersecurity chief would be “presumed innocent” in the meantime, he said.

The Handelsblatt daily had reported that there was “great annoyance” within the government over the allegations.

A planned joint appearance by Schoenbohm and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser to present a report on German cybersecurity in 2022 was cancelled last week. 

Commenting on the scandal then, Faeser said Germany was “vulnerable” to cyberattacks, “especially due to the threat posed by Russia’s war”.

Europe’s biggest economy has in recent years repeatedly accused Russia of online espionage attempts.

The most high-profile incident blamed on Russian hackers to date was a cyberattack in 2015 that paralysed the computer network of the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, forcing the entire institution offline for days while it was fixed.

Russia denies being behind such actions.

Tensions between Russia and Germany have only intensified since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The BSI has warned that companies, individuals and critical infrastructure are at risk of being hit by Russian cyberattacks.

Last week, the rail network in the north of the country was temporarily paralysed by what operator Deutsche Bahn called “sabotage”, with some officials pointing the finger at Russia.

Important communications cables were cut at two sites, forcing rail services to be halted for three hours and causing travel chaos for thousands of passengers.

Moscow is also suspected of being behind explosions last month that set off leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, which connect Russia to Germany.