Construction crane collapses on passenger train in Thailand, killing at least 32, officials say
A view of the scene after a crane being used to build a high-speed rail bridge collapsed onto a passenger train killing at least 12 injuring 30 in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand on January 14, 2026 (Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — At least 32 people were killed on Wednesday as a construction crane for a high-speed rail bridge collapsed onto a moving passenger train in Thailand, government officials said.
At least 64 others were injured, the Thai Ministry of Public Health said in a statement. Thirty-one of those who were killed were pronounced dead at the scene, the ministry said, adding that another person died as they were being transferred to a hospital.
The crane crashed onto the train at about 9 a.m. as the train traveled between the Nong Nam Khun and Sikhiu stations, in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima, according to the Office of the Prime Minister.
“Train derailed and caught fire. 30+ passengers injured, many trapped in carriages,” the government said in an initial statement posted on social media. “Multiple rescue teams deployed.”
The train, which had departed from Bangkok, was carrying 195 passengers and staff members, according to the State Railway of Thailand.
“These figures are currently being verified and officially confirmed by the relevant agencies on the ground,” the minister said in Thai in a statement posted to social media.
The health ministry raised that figure again, saying several hours later that at least 22 people had been killed. The ministry in a subsequent update at about 4:30 p.m. said the toll had again climbed, hitting 31. The ministry said two hours later that the death toll at the scene had risen by one, adding that three people were also considered missing.
The bodies of the dead were transferred to Sikhiu Hospital, the ministry said, adding that many of the injured were being treated at several local hospitals. Eleven were still hospitalized as of the 4:30 p.m. update, the ministry said.
The train was listed as the Special Express Train No. 21, which connects Bangkok, the capital, with Ubon Ratchithani, a city in the northeast, according to the railway.
Emergency services work at the site of a train collision on January 19, 2026 after yesterday’s train collision in Adamuz, Spain. Authorities say at least 39 were killed and more than 150 were injured when a train collided with a derailed train on the evening of Sunday, Jan. 18. (Photo by Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)
(ADAMUZ, Spain) — At least 39 people were killed and about 152 others were injured after two high-speed trains collided in southern Spain on Sunday, according to officials.
A train traveling from Málaga to Madrid derailed near Adamuz, crossing over to the adjacent track where it hit another train coming from Madrid to Huelva, according to the Spanish Interior Minister.
The number of confirmed dead rose to 39 from the previously reported 21 and was “not final,” Oscar Puente, the Spanish transport minister, said in a statement early on Monday.
“I want to express all my gratitude for the huge effort of the rescue teams during the night, under very difficult circumstances, and my condolences to the victims and their families in these terribly painful moments,” he said in Spanish on social media.
Spain’s prime minister is expected to visit the crash site this morning.
Officials had earlier said that of those injured, 75 were hospitalized, with 15 in very serious condition and five in life-threatening condition.
Rescue crews are on the scene, and all trains between Madrid and the Andalusia region are suspended, according to officials.
The cause of the train derailment has not yet been released.
Iryo, the company operating the train that initially derailed, released a statement, saying the company “deeply regrets what has happened and has activated all emergency protocols, working closely with the competent authorities to manage the situation.”
The company said there were 300 passengers on the train at the time.
Puente, the transport minister, spoke to reporters late Sunday night and the high-speed Iryo train was “relatively new.”
Puente said the derailment of the Iryo train bound for Madrid and its subsequent collision with the second train happened on a straight stretch of track, which had undergone extensive renovation work that was only finished in May.
The Spanish minister called the accident “extremely strange.”
“It’s very difficult at this moment to explain,” Puente added, and said he hoped the investigation would help clear up what has happened.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
Mourners gather to lay flowers at Bondi Beach on December 15, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. Police say at least 16 people, including one suspected gunman, were killed and more than 40 others injured when two attackers opened fire near a Hanukkah celebration at the world-famous Bondi Beach, in what authorities have declared a terrorist incident. (Izhar Khan/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — The alleged father and son gunmen who killed 15 people and wounded more than 40 in a mass shooting at Australia’s Bondi Beach traveled to the Philippines in the weeks leading up to the attack and may have been inspired by the ISIS terrorist organization, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
Investigators are probing the months leading up to Sunday’s shooting, when the suspected gunmen — Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24 — fired at people attending a Hanukkah event. Australian officials have described the shooting as an anti-semitic terrorist attack.
“It would appear that there is evidence that this was inspired by a terrorist organization, by ISIS,” Albanese told reporters at a Tuesday press conference.
Sajid Akram and Naveed Akram allegedly stood on an overpass bridge near the event and shouted “Allahu Akbar” as they carried out the massacre, according to a briefing distributed to U.S. law enforcement and reviewed by ABC News. The father was shot and killed by police and the son was critically hurt and hospitalized, officials said.
New South Wales Police Force Commissioner Mal Lanyon said a car registered to Naveed Akram contained IEDs and ISIS flags.
“We continue to work through the motive of this tragedy and will continue to do so,” Lanyon said.
Law enforcement said they are also investigating a trip taken by the alleged shooters to the Philippines in November.
“The reasons why they went to the Philippines and the purpose of that and where they went when they were there is under investigation at the moment,” Lanyon said.
Sajid Akram, who was born into a Muslim family in India, immigrated in 1998 to Australia, where he got married and had a son and a daughter, Indian authorities told ABC News. Naveed Akram is an Australian citizen, offiicals said.
Authorities noted that Sajid Akram maintained limited contact with his family in Hyderabad, Indiana, since the 1990s, visiting India on six occasions, primarily for family-related matters. Local police said there was “no adverse record” against Sajid Akram during his time in India before he moved.
Australia is now grieving the 15 victims killed, including a 10-year-old girl named Matilda and an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor.
Among the injured is a bystander, Ahmad Al Ahmad, who was seen on video jumping in and wrestling a gun away from one of the attackers, according to police.
Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales, is pushing back on criticism of the police response time.
Responding officers “acted with bravery and integrity. They didn’t take a backward step,” Minns said during a Tuesday press conference.
“They engaged the gunmen on the footbridge with handguns,” Minns said. “The offenders had long-range rifles and New South Wales police officers were responsible for killing one of them and shooting the other one and as a result saving many, many people’s lives.”
“Now there are two officers in critical care in New South Wales hospitals at the moment. They weren’t shot in the back as they were running away, they were shot in the front,” Minns said.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Somayeh Malekian, Helena Skinner and Dada Jovanovic contributed to this report.
Al Azhar University in Gaza. (Diaa Ostaz/ABC News)
(GAZA STRIP) — After two consecutive years of war that upended nearly every aspect of life in the Gaza Strip, universities are slowly beginning to reopen, restoring a path to education despite extraordinary levels of destruction.
Before Oct. 7, 2023, Gaza had 17 higher-education institutions, comprising hundreds of buildings. Today, most of these facilities are in ruins, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education.
More than 100 university buildings were destroyed during the war, while roughly 200 university employees were killed, the education ministry said. The devastation has raised doubts about whether higher education could resume at all. But at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, the administration and some students told ABC News they are determined not to let the war erase an entire generation’s future.
When ABC News visited the temporary campus where Al-Azhar has resumed in-person teaching, the damaged classrooms and improvised facilities reflected the depth of the crisis–yet they also highlighted the resilience of students returning with determination to continue their studies.
The university’s vice president, Dr. Muhammad Shubeir, said the decision to reopen was driven by necessity and by a sense of duty.
“During the difficult period of the war, we resumed the teaching,” online, Shubeir told ABC News. He said the staff worked from dangerous areas just to secure satellite internet. “We faced many risks, but thank God, we were able to continue until the war ended.”
As soon as conditions allowed, the administration said it moved toward restoring in-person learning, even though one of Al-Azhar’s largest campuses–its new facility in the Al Zahra area, which turned into the Netzarim corridor during the war — had been completely leveled.
“Despite losing everything at the university–especially the new campus that housed five colleges–we will begin anew with these buildings, gradually and voluntarily,” he told ABC News in an interview.
Shubeir said the university repeatedly stressed to all parties that it had no role in any conflict, and he recalled a phone call with an Israeli intelligence officer ordering the evacuation of the Zahra campus.
“Al-Azhar University is an academic institution that strives for a culture of peace, coexistence, and respect among all peoples,” Shubeir said. He said he reminded the officer that targeting educational institutions violates the Fourth Geneva Convention, though the warning did not stop the demolition.
The IDF told ABC News it found Hamas terrorist infrastructure in the university that was used for Hamas military activities.
IDF said soldiers on Oct. 30, 2024, identified armed terrorists and an anti-tank missile launching position in the Al-Azhar University area, and guided a fighter jet to strike.
“On Dec. 7, IDF soldiers destroyed enemy infrastructure disguised in buildings, that were used for Hamas’ military activities at Al-Azhar University in the Rimal neighborhood of the Gaza Strip,” IDF said in a statement.
“Terror infrastructures were located in the university campus, among them, an underground terror tunnel that leads from the university yard to a school about a kilometer away from it,” the IDF statement continued. “In addition, many weapons of explosive charges, rocket parts, launchers, explosives activation systems and a variety of technological means were found in the university.”
The financial damage to the school is immense, Shubeir said.
“The new university campus was erased from existence, resulting in a loss of $30 million,” he said. He estimated the total destruction of buildings, equipment, and movable assets at more than $40 million.
Still, he said the university’s message to the world remains unchanged. “In Gaza, there are people who want life. We want to live in peace and stability,” he said.
For some students, returning to campus has been both inspiring and overwhelming. Many have lost homes, academic materials, and years of normal schooling. Mira Al-Agha, a first-year pharmacy student, said her motivation to resume her studies came from her belief that education is the only sustainable path forward.
“Honestly, we have great faith in Al-Azhar University that it will definitely return,” she told ABC News. She said that despite limited facilities, university staff “are still working tirelessly, step by step.”
But she said the emotional toll remains heavy.
“We spent two years in places unsuitable for studying,” she said. “But the spirit of education makes you feel that you want to become something in this world. It gives you the motivation to continue.”
For Mira, transportation is one of the biggest obstacles–traveling from Khan Younis to Gaza City is expensive and unpredictable. She said students need better access to transportation, internet, and study spaces.
For dentistry students at Al-Azhar, the challenges are even greater. Much of their practical training relies on specialized labs and equipment — almost all of which were destroyed, the school said.
Dental student Abdul Rahman Amer, in the 5th level of the dentistry program, said the destruction initially shattered his hope.
“When I saw the building destroyed, I lost hope of ever completing our studies,” he told ABC News. But the university’s effort to secure temporary facilities revived his determination. “This gave us a glimmer of hope to resume our education,” he said.
Amer’s daily routine reflects the broader difficulties facing students. He leaves home before sunrise to catch transportation, which he says can cost around $50 per day.
“These aren’t luxuries,” he said, describing the difficulty of finding dental materials. “We help people and relieve their toothaches. But the tools are difficult to find, and the prices are exorbitant.” Still, he insists he will not give up. “Nothing will benefit me except finishing my studies,” he said.
The reopening of higher-education institutions–however limited–is a reminder that rebuilding Gaza begins with safeguarding its students’ futures, Shubeir said. For thousands of young people walking across damaged campuses each morning, education is not just learning; it is an act of resilience and a statement of survival, he added.
Shubeir said the world should understand that Gaza’s students are holding onto education as their last remaining path to a stable future.
“Our buildings were destroyed, but our will was not,” he said. He urged the international community to support efforts to rebuild academic life in Gaza, stressing that education is the foundation on which recovery must begin. “We want life, peace, and dignity,” he said. “Stand with us so we can protect this generation and give them the future they deserve.”
