Passengers overpower teenager ‘brandishing gun’ on Australia flight
A teenager armed with a gun was arrested for breaching a security fence and attempting to board a commercial flight before being tackled by passengers.
Police were called to the Avalon airport in Victoria, Australia, on Thursday after the 17-year-old, allegedly armed with a loaded shotgun, tried to force his way onto a Jetstar flight bound for Sydney.
The teen climbed through a hole in the airport’s fence and tried to go up the front stairs into the aircraft’s cabin in a massive breach of security, police said.
Three passengers reportedly noticed the teenager, who was dressed as a maintenance worker, carrying a gun and overpowered him before police arrived. The flight was carrying about 150 passengers. Police did not identify the teen, as is common in cases involving minors.
Passenger Barry Clark tackled the teenager when he became agitated while speaking to a flight attendant. “Before we knew it, a shotgun appeared,” Mr Clark told ABC Radio Melbourne. “I was worried about it being shot, so all I could do was push her out of the way, get the gun out of the way, break that gun and throw it down the stairs, and then put him in a hold, throw him to the ground until the police came.”
He said the teenager had “other apparatus on him so I didn’t know what his full intention was”, ABC Radio Melbourne reported.
“I didn’t want to see that poor girl get shot, do you just gotta do what you gotta do,” he added, referring to a flight attendant.
Victoria police superintendent Michael Reid said that detectives were still investigating the teenager’s motive and coordinating with counterterrorism officers but added that it was too early to deem the act terrorism-related.
A bomb squad was also called to the airport after two bags were found inside the teenager’s car, which was later deemed safe.
Mr Reid said the teenager mounted or climbed the front stairs of the airplane. “At that point, passengers have identified the male was carrying a firearm. The male was overpowered by three of the passengers at least. And shortly afterwards, police have arrived and taken that male into custody,” he said in a statement. “No doubt this would have been a very terrifying incident for the passengers of that plane and Victorian police really commend the bravery of those passengers who were able to overpower that male.”
The teenager carried ammunition with the shotgun, Mr Reid said. “It is very concerning that a person can firstly breach security, approach an aircraft and make his way potentially close to being inside an aircraft with a firearm. I can’t communicate more clearly how concerning that is,” he said.
Another passenger who tackled the teenager said after everyone had boarded, he heard a “kerfuffle and saw the pilot and this other guy tackling this young boy” wearing a high-vis vest.
“In a split second, the gentleman Barry Clark in 1C saw him and jumped him, tackled him, and got him in a choke lock, disarmed him,” the second man, identified only as Woodrow, told ABC.
He said the pilot jumped in along with him and another man came up to “support and hold him down”.
Jetstar said it was working with the police and the airport to understand what happened. “The safety of our passengers and crew is our number one priority and we can confirm there are no reported injuries,” an airline spokesperson said.
The Avalon airport was shut to visitors until further notice and all flights scheduled for Thursday evening were cancelled or rerouted.
After woman on death row, two more Indian nationals executed in UAE
Two Indian nationals who were on death row have been executed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the foreign ministry said, just days after a 33-year-old woman was subjected to capital punishment.
The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi said Muhammed Rinash Arangilottu and Muraleedharan Perumthatta Valappil from the southern state of Kerala had their death sentences carried out after they were upheld in the court.
The two nationals were convicted for separate murders in the UAE and executed on 28 February.
It comes as the family of Shahzadi Khan, 33, expressed shock after she was executed on 15 February in Abu Dhabi for the murder of a four-month-old child where she worked as a caregiver. The family of Khan has alleged that they had no prior information about her execution and the foreign ministry said the UAE only informed them on 28 February.
On the eve of her execution on 14 February, Khan made a last call to her family as her dying wish and informed them about her execution. On 20 February her father filed an application to foreign ministry to seek an update on the legal status of her case.
Arangilottu, who was from the Kannur district, was convicted of the murder of an Emirati national. He worked in a travel agency in Al Ain city before his arrest.
Arangilottu’s mother reportedly submitted a plea to Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan to intervene in the case, claiming that her son accidentally committed murder as he tried to escape a mentally challenged man who was torturing him.
Valappil was sentenced for killing an Indian national in UAE.
The foreign ministry said the Indian embassy in UAE provided all possible consular and legal support to the Indian nationals, including sending mercy petitions and pardon requests to the UAE government.
“The families of the concerned have been informed. The embassy is in touch with them and facilitating their participation in the last rites,” the foreign ministry said.
The UAE has the highest number of Indians facing the death penalty abroad.
Before Khan’s death, 29 Indians were facing death sentences in the UAE, Kirti Vardhan Singh, minister of state for external affairs, had informed parliament on 13 February.
As many as 12 were on death row in Saudi Arabia, three in Kuwait and one in Qatar, she said.
In a similar case, an Indian-origin nurse, Nimisha Priya, 34, was sentenced to death in war-torn Yemen for the murder of her former business partner and could be executed soon. She has denied the allegations of killing Talal Abdo Mahdi in 2017.
Her family is now trying to race “blood money” – a sum to be paid to the family of the victim – to secure a pardon.
Putin thanks Myanmar for gift of 6 elephant calves
Russian president Vladimir Putin hosted the Myanmar junta chief and extended his gratitude to the military leader who faced a potential arrest warrant at the international criminal court for alleged crimes against Rohingya Muslims.
It was military General Min Aung Hlaing’s fourth visit to Russia since he directed a coup in 2021 and ousted the administration of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, throwing the country into a civil war.
However, it was the first time the general personally met the Russian president and held bilateral talks, where the two leaders heaped praises on each other.
Myanmar’s military-run government had sent six elephants to Russia in January to mark the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The gift coincided with Russia’s completing delivery of six fighter jets to Myanmar, as part of so-called “elephant diplomacy” between two governments viewed dimly in Western capitals.
In the televised meeting at the Kremlin, General Hlaing referred to Mr Putin as a “king” and offered support for his war in Ukraine which has entered its fourth year.
“I believe that victory must be yours under your strong and decisive leadership,” he told Mr Putin.
Mr Putin hailed the steadily developing ties and “substantive and constructive” talks with General Hlaing, adding that Moscow and Naypidaw were “bound by truly strong bonds of friendship, traditions of support, and mutual assistance,” according to a statement from his office.
“And of course, I cannot but thank you for your very warm gift: You brought us six elephants last year, and they have already been given to the Moscow Zoo,” Mr Putin said.
The warming of ties between head of the Myanmar’s beleaguered military and Mr Putin reflected closeness in strategic and diplomatic relations between the two countries that are viewed as pariahs by Western nations and faced a slew of sanctions.
Western nations have imposed economic and political sanctions on Myanmar in response to the takeover and the violent repression of the opposition, which has led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and given rise to an armed conflict widely seen as a civil war.
Russia, along with China, is a major supporter and arms supplier to Myanmar. Russian-made fighter jets are used in attacks on territory under control of ethnic minority groups, many of them allies with pro-democracy resistance forces.
Mr Putin noted that the bilateral trade has soared to 40 per cent between the two countries and signed an agreement on the construction of a small-scale nuclear plant in Myanmar.
Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear power corporation, said the plant would have a capacity of 100mw with the possibility of trebling that capacity.
Mr Putin also announced that a military unit from Myanmar would take part in the military parade in Moscow on 9 May marking the 80th anniversary of the World War Two victory over Nazi Germany. He said General Hlaing would also attend.
General Hlaing, 68, rarely travels abroad and avoids the media limelight as he struggles with an ongoing civil war in the country, a tattered economy in the country of 55 million which the United Nations says is in urgent need of aid.
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan requested an arrest warrant for General Hlaing, alleging crimes against humanity related to the persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority. This request is currently under review by ICC judges, who will determine whether to issue the warrant.
In February this year, an Argentine court, invoking the principle of universal jurisdiction, issued an arrest warrant against General Hlaing. Myanmar’s military spokesperson dismissed the ruling as “baseless” and accused Argentina’s judiciary of political interference
Nay Phone Latt, a spokesperson for Myanmar’s main opposition National Unity Government, said the military leader is in desperate need of international recognition and willing to trade the country’s resources in exchange.
“So, to maintain his power, he will go to countries that will recognise him and provide him with some kind of assistance,” Nay Phone Latt told the Associated Press.