and coming up in the sport ireland move to the top of the six nations table with victory over the defending champions, wales, in dublin. hello and welcome to world news today. a rogue soldier has killed 20 people and injured dozens more in a gun rampage in the thai city of nakhon ratchisima. he is still at large. thai officials say the gunman is a junior army officer. he shot a colonel at his army barracks and stole weapons, before opening fire — first at a buddhist temple, then at the shopping centre. police have stormed the mall and, in the last hour, we've heard gunfire from inside. eyewitnesses say two casualties have been brought out of the building. this is the scene live in north eastern thailand. authorities have sealed off the terminal 21 shopping centre, as they try to track down the suspect. jonathan head reports. panic in a provincial shopping mall, as people realised there is a done man inside and they have to run. panic in a provincial shopping mall, as people realise there is a gunman inside and they have to run. from outside, the sound of multiple gunshots. at this stage, he had already killed a senior army officer and shot several other soldiers before reaching the shopping mall. at one point, one of his shots appeared to ignite a gas cylinder. the government has been identified as 32—year—old the gunman has been identified as 32—year—old sergeant majorjakraphanth thomma. he took selfies of himself outside the mall and live streamed parts of his attack on facebook before it was taken down. but his motives are not yet known. gun crimes are not uncommon in thailand but a shooting on this scale by one man is something horribly new. jonathan has this update. we are still waiting for an announcement from the security forces on the ground, and we've got a lot of very senior commanders down there, the army commander, the commander of the entire army is down there, the police commander, all the bigwigs. when they announce to the press that is over, it will be over. but we don't know what is going on inside the shopping mall itself, it is now three hours since the police sent a special unit that they have flown in helicopter from bangkok into the mall. we still a lot of people coming out, many hundreds of people who had been trapped inside. they were able to run out, run to safety, so we think most of the shoppers and ordinary folk are outside the shopping mall and the police have stated they control every floor above the ground level. the guess then it is they think the gunman is in the basement. why they haven't moved in to try and arrest him isn't clear. it's possible he may still be holding some people or there may be some people in danger. there is, in some ways, an information blackout at the moment, because we really have to wait until the security forces tell us what is going on. it has been very quiet. we haven't had any gunshots for a long time now so something of a stalemate. it is not over yet but we think the end must be quite close. and what do we know about the gunman and how this all started? he is a 32—year—old sergeant major. he was working in a munitions and ordinance unit in nakhon ratchasima in the city where this took place, which suggests he might have quite a good knowledge of firearms and would have perhaps known where to get them. he actually attached his, we think, commanding officer, colonel at the army base, and we believe that man's he actually attacked his, we think, commanding officer, a colonel at the army base, and we believe that man's mother—in—law, shot them both dead, shot over some kind of dispute, we guess. he then moved from there to an army base where he was able to obtain weapons and ammunition, assault rifles, and then stopping briefly at a temple, he went on to this very large shopping centre, it would be probably the main retail attraction in nakhon ratchasima which is a very large city itself, right in the middle of the city, several hours ago now, firing wildly. he hit a lot of people just outside the shopping centre. it seems there are a lot of casualties there. people inside their cars, for example. before going inside, sending people running for their lies. and multiple shots were heard even then so at this stage, although the official death toll is 20, with more than 30 injured, it is quite possible that may change. if there are any developments, we will bring them straight to you. the number of new coronavirus cases in the worst affected region of china appears to have stabilised slightly in the past four days. mike ryan from the world health organisation said the virus remained concentrated in who bay province. we are in a sort of four—day stable period of the disease where the number of reported cases hasn't advanced, and that is good news and may reflect the impact of control measures that have been put in place. we hope that the same stabilisation that appears to be occurring in wuhan also occurs outside but again, it is very, very early to make any predictions about numbers in this outbreak. this is still very intense disease outbreak in wuhan and hubei, and there is still great risks in practically all of the other provinces. china has introduced strict new rules to try to control the outbreak. in beijing, there's a ban on group dining while other cities are limiting how many family members can leave home each day. our correspondent stephen mcdonell has the latest from beijing. wuhan, the city at the heart of china's coronavirus emergency is struggling to cope with the size of this crisis. there are not enough beds, there is not enough equipment, hospitals have been swamped by the sick who need to be placed in isolation. faced with an explosion of infections, to massive quarantine centres were constructed, each in less than two weeks. days ago, the 1,000 bed mountain fire god facility was opened. now, patients are also being brought to the new mountain thunder god hospital, adding another 1300 beds. translation: what we are measuring is the net pressure difference in the room. it can make sure the wind outside blowing into the ward to prevent the infection source from going out. across the world, there is considerable concern this outbreak has a long way to go before being stabilised. chinese cities are introducing ever more harsh measures to try and control the spread of the disease. in hong kong, residents returning from mainland china are to spend two weeks in quarantine. foreigners must remain inside hotels or special government run facilities. those who don't comply are being threatened with prison time. stephen mcdonell, bbc news, beijing. in the past couple of hours, the final repatriation flight from wuhan to the uk has departed from china. a spokesperson for the uk foreign office confirmed that the flight took off from wuhan took off at 3.20am local time with over 200 passengers on board, including foreign office staff and medics. alongside british nationals, other nationalities are also on board. we can talk now live to trudie lang, director of the global health network at the university of oxford. thanks very much for talking to us. these numbers in the main province that was affected here appeared to stabilise over the last four days, what do you make of that? is it attributed the way the chinese authorities have handled this? attributed the way the chinese authorities have handled thi57m attributed the way the chinese authorities have handled this? it is really reassuring to hear that, isn't it? we can only speculate it could be the measures they put in place to try and prevent transmission and its hope we see that following the same pattern of the rest of china. what about the spread of this to other countries around the world ? spread of this to other countries around the world? yes, exactly, i think that is the main question you we are all considering and that is obviously why the global health, the world health organization made it a global public emergency, that question of if it increases in other parts of the world, it will be the poorest countries that are less able to cope and we would really need strong global collaboration and support because they couldn't manage to have the same response that china has managed to put in place and that is where the world will need to work together to prevent transmission and really prevent that same sort of impact elsewhere. what does that mean ina impact elsewhere. what does that mean in a practical level? sending in scientists, doctors, equipment, what is it? well, the first thing you need to do is detect cases and so you need to do is detect cases and so it is lots of public health messaging, really having countries supported in working out how to really communicate the message that people have to be aware of what is happening and what might be a way to spot the disease. and that information being shared everywhere about self isolation, how to prevent transmission, so supporting nations themselves and leading whatever steps they can put in place that iran detection and then preventing transmission. looking back at other outbreaks, how long are we expecting this kind of thing to last? it is a good question, about asking what we have learnt from other outbreaks because that really comes into play here, i think, because that really comes into play here, ithink, you know, we really have learnt from the ebola outbreak and the zika virus that we saw a few yea rs and the zika virus that we saw a few years ago and of course the previous outbreaks we saw with sars and mers, and we have learnt how these diseases behave but the main thing we have taken into this is how the world needs to work together in partnership and collaborations and they have been so many systems are put in place that help that rapid response and preparedness across the globe and i think that is the difference. what we can't say, of course, how effective that is going to be and there impossible questions of how quickly this is going to be taken under of how quickly this is going to be ta ken under control. of how quickly this is going to be taken under control. indeed, lots of questions, still, but for now, thank you for your time. thank you. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news... the amount of rainforest cleared in brazil's amazon region doubled last month, compared with january last year. environmentalists blame the polices of president jair bolsanaro, who this week said he wanted more rainforest to be cut down for mining, farming and power projects. the amazon is the world's largest rainforest and a crucial means of absorbing the gases that contribute to global warming. a group of senior conservative politicians in the uk is urging fellow tory mps to challenge the prime minister's decision to give the chinese technology firm, huawei, a role in building the country's 56 mobile networks. in a letter, severalformer cabinet ministers say there are alternative options which wouldn't compromise national security. the government insists the decision was taken following a rigorous review. the australian state of new south wales is braced for more severe wet weather this weekend as downpours ease the bushfire crisis in the region. australia's bureau of meteorology warned of "dangerous conditions" on saturday and sunday. there has already been flooding in sydney and other areas along the coast. olivia crellin has more. first came the fires, then the floods. so far this year, australia has faced weather conditions of biblical proportions. after months of destructive wildfires razed millions of hectares of land and killed 33 people and billions of animals, australia has experienced severe hailstorms and flash floods. despite the country receiving the heaviest rainfall in almost 20 years, many of the fires in the east of the country are still burning. we actually have 723 firefighters still in the field of operations. they are dealing with 38 fires, i9 uncontained, but the rainfall is obviously providing some welcome relief to many of the bushfires that have been raging. a welcome relief, but a challenge in its own right. there have been 13 rescues, flood rescues, which unfortunately has doubled since yesterday. i would appeal to the community to be very conscious of the fact that drains, rivers and any number of pieces of infrastructure will be challenged over the course of this flood activity. still, for much of new south wales, which had been in drought for over three years, providing the conditions that fuelled the intensity of the recent fires, the rain is a salve. with 20 of about 60 fires in the state already put out by the downpour in the past day, australians hope that after the rain comes the sun. olivia crellin, bbc news. polling is due to close shortly in ireland's general election. abut three and a half million people are eligible to vote. ireland has been governed by coalitions for the past a0 years and there are likely to be fresh coalition negotiations between parties after the election result is declared. among the voters today is one of ireland's oldest resident. nancy stewart, who is older than the republic itself at 106, stay with us on bbc world news, still to come: tragedy in uganda four rare mountain gorillas — like these — are killed by lightning. we hear from a journalist caught in the storm at the mgahinga national park. there is mr mandela, mr nelson mandela, a free man taking his first steps into a new south africa. iran's spiritual leader ayatollah khomeini has said he has passed a death sentence on salman rushdie, the british author of a book which many muslims say is blasphemous. the people of haiti have flocked to church to give thanks for the ousting of their former president. because of his considerable value as a stallion, shergar was kept in a special secure box in the stud farm's central block. shergar was driven away in a horse box that thieves had brought with them. they're stepped down from the plane a figure in morning, elizabeth ii, queen of this realm and of all her other realms and territories, head of the commonwealth, defender of the faith. this is bbc world news today. the latest headlines. automatic gunfire has been heard at a shopping mall in thailand, where security forces are hunting a gunman who's killed at least 20 people. the gunman — identified as a soldier who killed a superior officer before going on the rampage — is believed to be still at large. katy shanan has all the sport. england have kept their six nations title hopes alive after beating scotland by 13 points to six in awful weather conditions at murrayfield. captain owen farrell struck a penalty in each half, missing three more attempts from the tee as the weather contributed to a low—scoring match. ellis genge barrelled home for the only try with ten minutes remaining making sure that england won back the calcutta cup. next up for england it's ireland. the grand slam remains a possibility for them as they beat the reigning champions wales by 2a points to 1a. it's a first defeat in nine six nations matches for wales — ending their hopes of back to back grand slams. with all the details from dublin here's austin halewood: what a statement of intent that was from ireland and a new head coach andy farrell, a resounding win over the defending champions wales here at the aviva stadium in dublin. last weekend against scotland, for ireland it was all about getting the first scotland —— victory but here it was a much more clinical performance, they were much better with ball in hand, taking a lot more chances, they looked stronger defensively as well so the grand slam are still very much alive for irish rugby fans. as for wales, it is their first defeat in the six nations since they lost here on this very page two years ago. today, it was the big first test for their new head coach but they weren't strong enough defensively this afternoon so there is lots to him and his team to work on over the next two weeks, there is a weak break until the next round of fixtures, wales host france in two weeks' time in cardiff before ireland with the grand slam hopes still intact, they head to england and andy farrell will be plotting the downfall of his son owen at twickenham. everton are up to seventh in the english premier league after a 3—1win over crystal palace. carlo ancelotti's side are now unbeaten in five, as they moved to within a point of fifth place tottenham. richarlison restored their lead in the second half before the three points were guaranteed thanks to dominic calvert lewin's third. a good win for everton. but palace are still without a win this year and six points above the relegation zone in 14th place. just one other premier league game on saturday, which finished 1—1 between brighton and watford. watford took the lead midway through the first half with a strike from abdoulaye doucoure. but brighton equalised with 15 minutes to go thanks to a own goal from adrian mariappa. watford remain in the bottom three. brighton stay in 15th. borussia dortmund have missed the chance to go level on points at the top of the german bundesliga. they lost 11—3 against bayer leverkusen, with erling haaland failing to score for dortmund for the first time since joining the club last month. elsewhere, there were wins for union berlin, mainz and freiburg. sydney sixers have won the big bash league title with a 19—run victory over melbourne stars following a rain—shortened final at the sydney cricket ground. sixers opener, josh philippee hit a superb 52 off 29 balls to help his side post 116 for five with the match reduced to 12 overs per side. the stars struggled in reply, losing marcus stoinis and glenn maxwell early as they only made 97 for six. it's the sixers' first title since winning the inaugural twenty20 competition in 2012. meanwhile, india's women have pulled off the third—highest successful chase in women's t20 international history. to beat australia by seven wickets in their tri—series. chasing 17a, 16—year—old opener, sha—farli verma scored 49 off 28 balls to lead india to a stunning win. australia play england on sunday with all three teams still able to reach the final. and a new men's pole vault world record has been set by armand duplantis from sweden. he's only 20 years old, and has set the new record of six metres and 17 centimetres at an indoor meeting in poland. it beats the previous record byjust one centimetre. he says it's a record he's wanted to break since the age of three. that's all of the sport. there's plenty more on the bbc sport website. bye for now. four rare mountain gorillas, including a pregnant female, have died in uganda after being hit by lightning. a local conservation group says the three adult females and a male infant were found in uganda's mgahinga national park. the area was hit by a huge storm on monday. one of those caught in the storm in the south—west of the country was journalist jack losh — he's been telling more about what happened. the storm was intense. i've been tracking to see the famous iconic mountain gorillas of uganda the previous day, we had got back on this huge electricals dorm struck the place where we were staying at, the place where we were staying at, the thunder was dramatic, the downpour of rain was like nothing i had seen before, and tragically, it seems this gorilla family were caught up in it as well. it seems so unlikely, so lucky that this has happened. the bigger picture here is that if we go back to the 1980s, they were only 250 of these iconic big eight left in the world centred around central africa and uganda, veranda, and the democratic republic of con. through a really phenomenal conservation effort over the last few decades that has brought together local communities, national governments, and international conservation organisations, this number is 250 gorillas has now been brought up to around 2000 today. so, even though this is a success story for gorillas, actually, their population does remain very fragile and conservationists are warning us not to remain lax so the death of four gorillas in a single night is deeply concerning. this was a single family who had recently moved over from rwandan into uganda into the national park which only had one permanent gorilla family there. what is deeply concerning is that out of these four fatalities, three of them we re these four fatalities, three of them were females. obviously child—bearing gorillas, and one of them was already pregnant with a gorilla. the fourth gorilla was a young infant male. the good news is, as the conservationist was saying, while these four gorillas were lost, actually the rest of the family seems perfectly intact and healthy and are continuing to feed on this tropical highland vegetation as normal. so, even though it is a blow for conservation efforts, actually, it does seem that it is not going to greatly impacted on the long term. obviously, there is very little we can do to try and mitigate against such a freak incident like this but what is the one thing that countries need to be doing more to try and preserve and increase those numbers? the bigger picture here actually going forward is the threat of the climate crisis or climate change on a mountain gorillas. experts have warned that rising temperatures could increase the prevalence of disease for these animals, it can damage theirfood disease for these animals, it can damage their food supplies, so disease for these animals, it can damage theirfood supplies, so if disease for these animals, it can damage their food supplies, so if we wa nt to damage their food supplies, so if we want to preserve these iconic mammals, international governments around the world need to be doing more to curb the global heating crisis, the climate crisis, and that, in the long run, will help secure the future survival of these truly beautiful powerful but very gentle giants. let's ta ke let's take you back life to thailand, the scene of the siege where a rogue soldier has killed 20 people and injured dozens more in a gun rampage in the thai city of nakhon ratchasima. the shopping mall called terminal 21 is surrounded by security forces at the moment and they are still trying to capture the gunman and we haven't heard any reports that that has actually happened. we have heard gunfire but no results in trying to capture the gunman. that's it, this was bbc world news today. goodbye. good evening. a powerful and dangerous storm is on us all. storm keera. it will affect pretty much the whole of the uk. storm ciara. these tightly packed isobars suggest wind and wet weather. the met office have amber winds —— and the warnings out which indicates threat to life and significant disruption. the likelihood is that could be extended further north and it will be very windy for northern ireland and scotla nd windy for northern ireland and scotland as well. if that weren't enough, we've also got an amber warning out for parts of southern scotland, particular borders, a couple of rivers concerning here there could be so much rain on the slow—moving band of rain that it will lead to river flooding and flash flooding so that is a concern as well. not just flash flooding so that is a concern as well. notjust for southern scotland, we have the rain moving in north—west ireland and north—west england and wales, too. most of us will see rain by the end of the night but those areas can see a lot of rain. it will be relatively mild away from the north of scotland with mountain snow. these gusts of wind is that we are talking about, they could ring down power lines, low roof tiles off, because trees to fall roof tiles off, because trees to fa ll over roof tiles off, because trees to fall over and certainly branches flying around so has the risk to life and damage to places. rain and lots of showers, hail and thunder, very squally winds and the potential escalation through the central low lands later in the day, possibly 85 mph gust of wind, it will certainly cause widespread disruption. and across england and wales, we have the rain to clear but it doesn't really clear, we see bands of squally rain moving three during the course of the rain —— day, and the wind is escalating, even in land, perhaps once or twice a decade occurrence hence the concern that this is a dangerous concern that will cause widespread problems with large waves as well. it is possible we could see all sorts of consequences because of this storm. of course, there are warnings out, the details are on the website. it looks set to stay windy, but not as windy at the start of the week, but cold as well. goodbye. this is bbc world news, the headlines. bursts of automatic gunfire have been heard at a shopping mall in thailand. as security forces hunt a gunman responsible for shooting dead at least 20 people. the defence ministry says hundreds of shoppers have the gunman has been identified as a soldier who killed his commanding officer before going on the rampage. he's believed to be still at large. the world health organization says the number of new coronavirus cases in the chinese province at the centre of the outbreak has stabilised in the past four days. the death toll in mainland china has risen to 723 while new cases jumped to more than 311,000. and there's a warning of more "dangerous conditions" in australia, not from fires but flooding as new south wales braces for fresh

Related Keywords

Australia , Hong Kong , United Kingdom , Iran , Nakhon , Nakhon Si Thammarat , Thailand , Brazil , Beijing , China , Rwanda , Nakhon Ratchasima , Calcutta , West Bengal , India , Dublin , Ireland , Uganda , Haiti , Northern Ireland , Craigavon , Sydney , New South Wales , Bangkok , Krung Thep Mahanakhon , Sweden , Brighton , Brighton And Hove , Hubei , Guangdong , Poland , Wuhan , Berlin , Germany , Thai , Australian , Rwandan , Chinese , British , Scotland , Australians , Watford , Salman Rushdie , Sun Olivia , Lewis Vaughan Jones , Carlo Ancelotti , Nelson Mandela , Mike Ryan , Dominic Calvert Lewin , Owen Farrell , Glenn Maxwell , Andy Farrell , Nancy Stewart ,