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ACCIDENT

Swedish ferry crash: ‘everything shook’

Two passenger ferries have collided in heavy fog near the port of Nynäshamn off Sweden's east coast. Ten people sustained minor injuries, according to the latest reports.

Swedish ferry crash: 'everything shook'

The MS Gotland is reported to have run into the high-speed ferry HSC Gotlandia II, according to several media reports. Jan-Erik Rosengren, managing director of Rederi Gotland, confirmed the incident.

“It was really foggy. The captain blew the horn several times then there was a crack and everything shook. Panels in the ceiling fell down, and the window panes in the lower deck shattered. People started to panic; they didn’t know what was happening,” said passenger Ulrika Bond.

Bond was on the way to Nynäshamn with a friend when the collision occurred. According to her, the entire starboard side of the ferry was dented. After a while, passengers were allowed to disembark.

“We are standing outside the terminal waiting for our luggage. You can’t believe it’s true. You don’t think you can collide with a Gotland ferry,” said Bond.

HSC Gotlandia II departed from Visby this morning with 579 passengers and was scheduled to dock at Nynäshamn at 11:35.

There were 1,338 passengers onboard the MS Gotland.

Both vessels have are now docked at Nynäshamn’s harbour where they will be inspected overnight.

“The incident will obviously cause disruptions in our schedule,” the ferry company said in a statement.

Passengers who provided a telephone number when they booked tickets will be notified via telephone or text message about further developments.

For the time being, Destination Gotland isn’t accepting any more reservations.

While a new ferry will be put into service between Visby and Nynäshamn on Thursday night, between 5,000 and 6,000 passengers are expected to be affect by delays of up to ten hours.

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ACCIDENT

Cable car survivor must be returned to family in Italy, Israel court rules

An Israeli court ruled Monday that a boy whose parents died in an Italian cable car crash be returned to family in Italy, after his grandfather was accused of illegally bringing him to Israel.

Aya Biran , a paternal aunt of Eitan Biran who was the sole survivor of a deadly cable car crash in Italy, arrives at Tel Aviv’s Justice Court on October 10, 2021
Aya Biran , a paternal aunt of Eitan Biran who was the sole survivor of a deadly cable car crash in Italy, arrives at Tel Aviv’s Justice Court on October 10, 2021. Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP

The battle for custody of Eitan Biran, the sole survivor of the May accident that killed 14 people, has captured headlines since his maternal grandfather, Shmulik Peleg, brought him to Israel on a private jet last month.

The child lost his parents, younger brother and great-grandparents in the May 23 accident near the top of the Mottarone mountain in the northwestern Piedmont region, where the family was out on a Sunday excursion to the scenic spot served by the cable car.

The cable car’s pull cable snapped just before it reached destination. It then flew backwards, dislodging itself from a second, supporting cable, and crashed to the ground.

Investigations later revealed that emergency brakes that could have stopped the car on its supporting cable, avoiding the tragedy, had been deliberately deactivated to avoid delays following a technical malfunction.

Three individuals responsible for the cable car’s management were subsequently arrested.

The wreckage of a cable car that crashed on the slopes of the Mottarone peak above Stresa, Piedmont on May 23, 2021, killing 14.

The wreckage of a cable car that crashed on the slopes of the Mottarone peak above Stresa, Piedmont on May 23, 2021, killing 14. MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP.

Peleg has insisted that he drove Eitan from Italy to Switzerland before jetting him back to Israel – instead of returning him paternal aunt Aya Biran, who lives in northern Italy – because Eitan’s late parents wanted him to be raised in the Jewish state.

But Peleg has become the subject kidnapping probe by Italian prosecutors and Israeli police questioned him over those allegations last month.

A statement Monday from the Tel Aviv court where Aya Biran had filed a complaint said judges “did not accept the grandfather’s claim that the aunt has no custody rights”.

It recognised an Italian judgement that established Biran as a legitimate guardian and said Peleg had “unlawfully” removed the boy from his aunt’s care.

The court “ordered the return of the minor to his usual place of residence in Italy”.

The court also found that “a connection” between the surviving members of the Italy- and Israel-based relatives was in Eitan’s “best interests”.

Peleg was also ordered to pay Biran’s legal fees, amounting to 70,000 shekels ($22,000).

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Shmuel Peleg, the grandfather of Eitan Biran, hugs a relative outside the Justice Court in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on October 8, 2021.

Shmuel Peleg, the grandfather of Eitan Biran, hugs a relative outside the Justice Court in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on October 8, 2021. Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP

The case has stirred emotions in Israel, and throngs of journalists had surrounded the Tel Aviv court for hearings last month, with some pro-Peleg protesters insisting it was wrong to send a Jewish child out of Israel.

Before judges ordered the sides to stop talking to the media, Peleg told Israel’s Channel 12 in September that his grandson was “in the place where he is supposed to be, in his home, in Israel.”

Eitan and his parents, Amit Biran and Tal Peleg, had been living in Italy, where Amit Biran was studying medicine, together with their other child, Tom.

Eitan suffered severe chest and abdominal injuries and spent a week in intensive care after the May accident that occurred when a cable snapped on the aerial tram bringing weekend visitors to the top of the Piedmont region’s Mottarone mountain.

The accident was one of Italy’s worst in over two decades.   

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