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Bodies of two Israeli hostages recovered from Gaza by military as attacks intensify

This undated photo provided by The Hostages Families Forum Headquarters on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025, shows Israeli hostage Ilan Weiss, whose body was recovered in an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip. (The Hostages Families Forum Headquarters Forum via AP)
The body of Ilan Weiss (left) and one other unnamed hostage have been recovered from Gaza by the IDF (Picture: AP)

Israel’s military forces have recovered the bodies of two more hostages in Gaza.

The remains of Ilan Weiss and another unnamed captive were found just as Israel launched an offensive on the region.

Mr Weiss, 33, was killed during the attacks of October 7, 2023, at Kibbutz Be’eri.

His body was seized by Hamas and has been held for nearly two years by the terrorist group.

His wife Shiri, 53, and daughter, Noga, 18, were both also taken hostage but were released during a one-week ceasefire in November 2023.

The second recovered body has been identified as that of Idan Shtivi, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7.

He was 28 years old when he was taken hostage during the Hamas attack at the festival. It is not yet clear when or how he died.

A total of 48 Israeli hostages remain in Gaza, according to official statistics, of which only 22 are thought to be alive.

Israel’s prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said his country ‘would not rest’ until the rest of the hostages, both living and dead, are brought home.

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. (Ronen Zvulun/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country would ‘not rest’ until all the remaining hostages were returned (Pictured: AP)
This picture taken from a position near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during an Israeli strike on the besieged Palestinian territory, on August 29, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The Israeli military declared Gaza City "a dangerous combat zone" on August 29, as it prepared to conquer the Palestinian territory's largest city after almost two years of war. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
A picture taken near the Gaza border shows a huge cloud of smoke billowing following an air strike (Picture: AFP)
Mandatory Credit: Photo by APAImages/Shutterstock (15460712aj) Displaced Palestinians flee Gaza City towards the southern areas of the Gaza Strip, in Gaza City, on August 28, 2025, as the war between Israel and the Hamas militants movement continues. The Israeli military pressed operations around Gaza City on as US President Donald Trump hosted a meeting on post-war plans for the shattered Palestinian territory. Photo by Omar Ashtawy apaimages Displaced Palestinians flee Gaza City towards the southern areas of the Gaza Strip, in Gaza City,, Gaza city, Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territory - 28 Aug 2025
Palestinians fleeing Gaza City amid a ramped up Israeli offensive in the region (Picture: AP/Shutterstock)

The latest development comes as thousands of Palestinians have been told to evacuate Gaza City ahead of large scale offensive by the Israeli military.

The IDF said it would suspend humanitarian pauses to allow aid in Gaza, while it ramps up its offensive.

Among those that have been killed have been Gazans searching for food.

Earlier this week, a ‘double tap’ attack on a hospital left 20 people dead.

The IDF claimed to have been targeting a Hamas surveillance camera.

TOPSHOT-PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT
A young Palestinian stands on a street strewn with rubble following an explosion (Picture: AFP)

An initial strike hit a top floor of one of the hospital’s buildings.

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Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri was killed in that blast while filming from the site, according to a fellow journalist and a doctor at the hospital, along with a second person.

Health workers in orange vests, journalists and relatives of patients then rushed up an external staircase to reach the site of the first blast.

Photos taken from below showed at least 16 people gathered on the staircase, trying to help those hit. No one on the staircase was seen holding weapons.

Video footage taken by Al-Ghad TV shows the second strike hitting, causing a large boom and engulfing everyone on the staircase in smoke.

Hospital officials say 18 people were killed in the second strike.

The military did not elaborate on why it struck a second time or how it would have identified militants among the crowd on the staircase.

Its statement was issued after an initial inquiry into the attack, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a ‘tragic mishap’.

He did not elaborate on the nature of any mistake.

KHAN YUNIS, GAZA - AUGUST 27: The camera, press vest, helmet and mobile phone belonging to the Mariam Abu Dagga, one of the five journalists killed in the Israeli army's attack on Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis on August 25, are seen during an exclusive interview in Khan Yunis, Gaza on August 27, 2025. Mariam Abu Dagga, who worked as a journalist for various media organizations including Independent Arabia and AP, was one of the journalists who remained in Gaza to bring the truth to the world. The family of Mariam, a mother of one, stated that their daughter suffered greatly and was exhausted during the attacks on Gaza. (Photo by Doaa Albaz/Anadolu via Getty Images)
A press vest, helmet, camera and mobile phone belonging to the Mariam Abu Dagga, one of the five journalists killed in an attack on the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younnis (Picture: Anadolu)

The Israel-Hamas war has been one of the bloodiest conflicts for media workers.

Some 189 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza in 22 months of fighting, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Thursday, an Israeli airstrike killed the prime minister of Yemen’s Houthi government as well as several other ministers.

Ahmad Ghaleb al-Rahwi, who became prime minister nearly a year ago, was largely seen as a figurehead rather than part of Houthi top leadership.

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‘Frankenstein’ rabbits with tentacles seen in the US – should humans be worried?

A video of a rabbit with a rare disease that causes gruesome-looking growths to protrude from its head has attracted over 200,000 views online in less than a week. Dubbed ?Frankenstein', the animal was first seen by the Boettcher family in Mankato, Minnesota, early last month, hopping around in their backyard. The rabbit is infected by the cottontail papilloma virus (CRPV), also known as Shope papilloma virus, which causes tumours to grow on or near the animal's head.
People have been urged not to touch the animals (Picture: Reddit)

‘Frankenstein’ rabbits with black tendrils sprouting from their faces have been spotted in the US.

Looking like they’re straight out of HBO’s fungus horror show, The Last of Us, these mutated bunnies have been spotted in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Rabbits have long called the town home, often seen hopping from garden to garden, munching on lawns.

But local resident Susan Mansfield said she recently saw one with ‘black quills or black toothpicks sticking out all around’.

She told local TV station KOSA: ‘I thought he would die off during the winter, but he didn’t, he came back a second year, and it grew.’

FORT COLLINS, Colo. ? Some rabbits spotted in Fort Collins are showing alarming growths described as black, tentacle-like protrusions coming from their heads.Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) confirms the cause is a virus. The condition is not dangerous to humans or pets, CPW said, but they urge people to avoid approaching or touching the animals.
A virus causes black tendrils to grow from the animal’s body (Picture: Reddit)

What… is going on?

Recent sightings of the bunnies with sluglike growths date back to at least last year, when a Reddit user shared photographs of a rabbit in her garden covered in horns.

The bunnies are infected with a disease called cottontail rabbit papilloma, which was first described in the 1930s in cottontail rabbits from Iowa and Kansas.

Vadnais Heights, Minnesota, Eastern Cottontail rabbit, Sylvilagus floridanus, Rabbit with the papilloma virus (CRPV), or Shope papilloma virus, which is a type I virus under the Baltimore scheme, possessing a non segmented dsDNA genome. It infects rabbits, causing keratinous carcinomas, typically on or near the animal??s head. (Photo by: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
A rabbit with the papilloma virus, or Shope papilloma virus (Picture: Universal Images Group Editorial/Michael Siluk)

Behind the infection is the wily Shope papilloma virus, which wriggles inside a rabbit’s skin cells and rewires them so they replicate uncontrollably.

Over time, these cells pile up and form warty, black lesions called rabbit papillomas that sprout from the rabbit’s neck, shoulders, eyes and eyelids.

They can vary in size, from as small as a pea to a few centimetres.

These unsightly tumours aren’t just to freak us out – they’re there so the virus has plenty of space to keep on spreading.

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Though, the tumours themselves aren’t infectious. The virus is transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks, with cases peaking in summer when the biting insects are most active.

Will the rabbits be okay?

Rabbits typically overcome the disease on their own, with research suggesting that in about 35% of affected rabbits, papillomas disappear within six months.

There is no known cure, and while most infected cottontails survive, the growths can limit a rabbit’s ability to eat, causing it to starve to death.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife says in an advisory: ‘For this reason, CPW does not recommend euthanising rabbits with papillomas unless they are interfering with the rabbit’s ability to eat and drink.’

Sometimes, however, the warts progress into squamous cell carcinoma, a serious form of skin cancer.

Is there any risk to humans? What about other animals?

A video of a rabbit with a rare disease that causes gruesome-looking growths to protrude from its head has attracted over 200,000 views online in less than a week. Dubbed ?Frankenstein', the animal was first seen by the Boettcher family in Mankato, Minnesota, early last month, hopping around in their backyard. The rabbit is infected by the cottontail papilloma virus (CRPV), also known as Shope papilloma virus, which causes tumours to grow on or near the animal's head.
The infected rabbits have been spotted hopping around Colorado back gardens

Colorado wildlife officials have warned people not to touch or feed these strange-looking rabbits.

But people shouldn’t fear them, Kara Van Hoose, a spokeswoman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, told Metro.

‘This current strain of the Shope papilloma virus cannot be transmitted to humans,’ she stressed. ‘But it’s impossible to say if the virus mutates in the future, that it couldn’t.’

Cottontail rabbit papillomavirus is part of a family of viruses called papillomaviruses.

Many mammals have species-specific papillomaviruses. In deer, for example, it can cause them to grow fleshy, bubble-shaped tumours.

Humans have our own – HPV, otherwise called human papillomavirus. There are many types of HPV, a common sexually transmitted disease, which tend to cause genital warts.

‘It, thankfully, does not cause us to grow tentacles or horns on our faces,’ said Van Hoose.

Most of these photographs are of more extreme cases
15017759 Mutant deer with horrifying flesh bubbles spotted in US as fears of an outbreak grip the nation Deer and other wildlife occasionally have lumps or abscesses for a variety of reasons and most are insignificant to the health of the animal and to humans. Two common causes of lumps, growths, and abscesses include a condition called Caseous Lymphdenitis (CL) and Papillomas (warts). Information on these is below.
The flesh bubbles on deer can be as large as a football (Picture: Matt Harbin/WA Fish & Wildlife)

‘We couldn’t say for sure if that could change in the future, as viruses can evolve and mutate over time.’

There is some risk of the virus transmitting to domesticated rabbits, so pet owners have been warned to keep their furry friends indoors, said Van Hoose.

If they do become sickened with cottontail rabbit papillomavirus, they should be taken to a veterinarian, according to a CPW tipsheet.

Is an outbreak possible?

Probably not, Van Hoose stressed, who called reports about rising cases or outbreak fears ‘overblown’.

‘This is a virus which appears every summer and can affect rabbits all over the US. The public in general should not be concerned,’ she said.

Van Hoose said the agency didn’t receive a single report of an infected rabbit until news outlets began reporting on them this month.

‘Since then, we’ve taken maybe two dozen reports?’ she said. ‘It could be 24 different rabbits or six rabbits seen four times.’ 

Some social media users say they have seen the horny rabbits in Washington, looking almost like a unicorn.

Chase Gunnell, a spokesman for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, told Metro that agency officials have not received any recent sighting reports from Seattle or elsewhere in the state.

‘We cannot provide confirmation of a wildlife disease based on an unverified social media post alone,’ Gunnell added.

‘While we are not aware of risks to people, we also cannot comment on human health implications.’

Rabbits with antlers, colloquially called jackalopes, were described in journals between the 16th and 18th centuries.

Historians and scientists believe that sightings of these mythical creatures may have simply been rabbits suffering from papilloma.

‘I think they look pretty metal!’ Van Hoose added. ‘It’s interesting what nature can do.’

Are 'Frankenstein' rabbits anything to worry about in the UK?

Thankfully, not, the Rabbit Welfare Association and Fund told Metro.

‘Our rabbits here in the UK are a different species, and thankfully, it isn’t an issue we see in the UK,’ the non-profit said.

‘Our wild rabbits suffer more commonly from a myxoma virus, or myxomatosis. They need to be vaccinated every 12 months to protect them, as it is so easily spread by biting insects like mosquitoes and fleas. 

‘They also need to be vaccinated against rabbit viral haemorrhagic disease (RVHD).’

This article was first published on August 13, 2025.

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Wild pigs are turning neon blue in California – here’s why

Wild pig turns blue
A local trapper was left scratching his head after cutting the pig open (Picture: GlendilTEK/imgur)

Wild pigs in the US are turning a colour only comparable to Cool Blue Gatorade.

California is home to some 400,000 feral hogs, but game hunters say the insides of wild pigs they have killed this year are a neon blue.

Dan Burton, who owns a wildlife control company, told the Los Angeles Times that he found a discoloured swine in Monterey County in March.

He trapped some wild pigs which had been nibbling the crops of an agriculture firm, only to see their insides were a slushie blue when he cut them open.

‘I’m not talking about a little blue,’ the Salinas local said. ‘I’m talking about neon blue, raspberry blue.’

Blue pigs, however, are nothing new. A user on the image-sharing website, Imgur, shared photographs of a ‘weird pig’ in 2015.

Wild pig turns blue
Wildlife officials say they were alerted to the blue-tainted pigs in March (Picture: GlendilTEK/imgur)

‘My in-laws live on a ranch in Morgan Hill, [Santa Clara County], and they shot a wild pig on it. They thought it was a normal pig until they cut it open,’ they wrote.

While their in-laws do live near an abandoned mercury mine – copper poisoning can tint flesh blue – the user said they’ve shot pigs before and not seen them have blue fat.

They added: ‘Everything else about the pig was normal, the meat, blood, etc. The only weird part was the blue fat throughout the body.’

Burton alerted the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which confirmed the pig had ingested diphacinone, a slow-acting poison.

Diphacinone is used by farmers to keep squirrel, rat and mice populations in check, placed in bait stations for the critters to eat.

When consumed, the ‘extremely toxic’ chemical stops blood from clotting, causing heavy internal bleeding, fever and back pain, according to a government fact-sheet.

Wild pigs are turning neon blue in California The anticoagulant rodenticide diphacinone in the stomach and liver contents of one of the wild pigs that was recovered with blue tissues. rodenticide bait ingestion
Diphacinone is dyed blue so humans know to steer clear of it (Picture: CDFW)

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Pest control companies dye the coffee bean-shaped substance blue to make it clear to humans that it’s a rodenticide.

But pigs can’t read warning labels – state wildlife officials found the poison in a pig’s stomach and liver, suggesting the hogs have been eating diphacinone out of bait stations.

Wild pigs, a cross between domestic pigs and wild boars, are omnivores, so they may be eating both the poisoned rodents as well as the bait.

The surreal blue hue of the pig meat isn’t because of the rodent control itself but rather the dye, which leaks into the animal’s muscles and fat.

This bizarre side-effect happens when an animal consumes a large quantity of diphacinone, meaning that even if a pig appears juicy and red inside, it may still have ingested some of the poison.

People and predators who eat meat painted blue by the poison can suffer ‘secondary exposure’ because the substance can remain in the animal’s system for weeks, studies have found.

A feral California Hog in it's wallow.
A feral hog in California (Picture: Getty Images)

Cooking the discoloured meat does little to decrease the concentration of the poison.

Burton said that he found the blue pigs had been eating from squirrel bait stations.

Given that it takes days for the poison to take effect on small animals, let alone 91kg pigs, he said that may be why the swine appeared perfectly fine.

Diphacinone has been mostly prohibited across California since 2024, usable only by certified pest control staff, government officials or at farms.

Wildlife officials are now warning hunters, trappers and anyone who eats wild pig to stay away from blue coloured meat.

Anyone who comes into contact with blue hogs is urged to report it to the agency.

Traffic sign warning wild boars and road in two directions
The poison can be in an animal’s system for weeks (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

No other blue-tinged animals have been reported in Monterey County since March.

Researchers in 2018 found that nearly one in 10 wild pigs living near human-controlled areas was contaminated with rodenticide.

CDFW pesticide investigations coordinator Dr Ryan Bourbour said in a statement: ‘Hunters should be aware that the meat of game animals, such as wild pig, deer, bear and geese, might be contaminated if that game animal has been exposed to rodenticides.

‘Rodenticide exposure can be a concern for non-target wildlife in areas where applications occur in close proximity to wildlife habitat.’

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Nuclear power plant forced to shut down after jellyfish infestation

Yellyfish lying on the shore near the Gravelines nuclear power plant in Gravelines, northern France on August 12, 2025. Four units at the Gravelines nuclear power plant (Nord) were shut down on August 11, 2025 due to the "massive and unforeseeable presence of jellyfish" in the pumping stations for the water used to cool the reactors, EDF announced. These automatic shutdowns of units 2, 3, 4, and 5 "had no impact on the safety of the facilities, the safety of personnel, or the environment," EDF assured on its website. The plant is thus temporarily completely shut down, as its two other production units, 1 and 5, are currently undergoing maintenance. (Photo by Sameer AL-DOUMY / AFP) (Photo by SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP via Getty Images)
Jellyfish on the shore near the Gravelines nuclear power plant in northern France (Picture: Sameer AL-DOUMY/AFP)

One of the largest nuclear power plants in Europe was forced to shut down after some unusual visitors.

Gravelines nuclear power plant in northern France was fully shut down on Monday after a ‘massive and unpredictable’ swarm of jellyfish entered the plant’s pumping stations.

The power station, located between the cities of Dunkirk and Calais, is connected to the North Sea via a canal, which pumps in sea water to cool its reactors.

Its six units produce 900megawatts of power each – but four of them were forced to halt production over the jellyfish invasion.

Data from EDF, which runs the power plant, showed the other two units were already offline for planned maintenance.

The power company said it did not know what species of jellyfish was involved in the shutdown, but that its staff are working to restart the reactor safely.

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GRAVELINES, FRANCE - AUGUST 12: Jellyfish washed up on the beach in front of the Gravelines nuclear power station, operated by Electricite de France SA (EDF) on August 12, 2025 in Gravelines, France. It has been reported that EDF has been forced to shut down the nuclear power plant at Gravelines in France due to a swarm of jellyfish entering the water intake system that cools the reactors. ( (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
Huge numbers of the jellyfish have been washed up along the shore near Gravelines (Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Reactors 2-4 stopped automatically just before midnight when the filter drums of the pumping stations became packed with the swarm, with reactor 6 going offline several hours later.

EDF said the event did not affect the safety of the facilities, staff or the environment.

It’s understood the filter pumps haven’t been damaged, and that they simply need to be cleaned and the jellyfish removed before the reactors can restart.

This isn’t the first time the Gravelines area has seen swarms of jellyfish, with swarms washing up on beaches there several times in recent years.

The increase is likely due to water temperatures rising thanks to global warming, as well as the introduction of invasive species.

Derek Wright, marine biology consultant with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, explained: ‘Jellyfish breed faster when water is warmer, and because areas like the North Sea are becoming warmer, the reproductive window is getting wider and wider.

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(FILES) This photograph taken on March 5, 2014 shows the nuclear plant of Gravelines. Four units at the Gravelines nuclear power plant (Nord) were shut down on August 11, 2025 due to the "massive and unforeseeable presence of jellyfish" in the pumping stations for the water used to cool the reactors, EDF announced. These automatic shutdowns of units 2, 3, 4, and 5 "had no impact on the safety of the facilities, the safety of personnel, or the environment," EDF assured its website. The plant is thus temporarily completely shut down, as its two other production units, 1 and 5, are currently undergoing maintenance. (Photo by PHILIPPE HUGUEN / AFP) (Photo by PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP via Getty Images)
Gravelines nuclear power plant (Picture: PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP)

‘Jellyfish can also hitch rides on tanker ships, entering the ships’ ballast tank in one port and often getting pumped out into waters halfway across the globe.

‘Everyone talks about nuclear being clean, but we don’t think about the unintended consequences of heat pollution.’

While it’s not known what species of jellyfish was sucked into the Gravelines cooling system, one invasive species known as the Asian Moon jellyfish was first spotted in the North Sea in 2020.

The species, native to the Pacific Northwest, has caused similar problems at nuclear plants in China, Japan and India.

Asian Moon jellyfish are not considered dangerous as their sting is incredibly mild and causes very little harm to humans.

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Feline felon has paw printed and mugshots taken after scratching police officers

Nub Tang the cat sitting in front of a home-drawn height chart for her mugshot
Nub Tang was found wandering the streets in her pink harness (Picture: Da Parinda Pakeesuk/Cover Images)

A mischievous cat thought she could get away with the pawfect crime. But it wasn’t a bank robbery to fund her out-of-control catnip addiction or even being uncovered as a serial killer of mice.

The feline felon named Nub Tang – which means ‘counting money’ – was arrested and charged with assault for attacking officers.

The purrpetrator was brought into a police station by a concerned member of the public, who found her wandering the streets wearing a pink harness.

However, officers got more than they bargained for when taking in the furry fiend.

Nub Tang on a desk being stroked by a Thai police officer
Nub Tang was brought to the police station by a concerned member of the public (Picture: Da Parinda Pakeesuk/Cover Images)

Far from being a grateful rescue, Nub Tang turned on her would-be saviours, biting and scratching the station’s officers.

One animal-loving policeman, Dar Parinda Pakeesuk, had offered to take her home for the night.

In a now viral Facebook post, he jokingly shared a photograph of Nub Tang mugshot and alerted users to her charge sheet: ‘This cat has been charged with assaulting police officers and is about to be detained.

‘Please share this post so her owner can come and bail her out.’

Nub Tang wearing her pink harness, standing in front of a black sign with some Thai writing on it and an English translation that is partly obscured by her. It appears to read 'suspect identity room'.
Nub Tang went viral for her disgruntled appearance – and for assaulting officers (Picture: Da Parinda Pakeesuk/Cover Images)

Later, he shared another picture of the miffed moggy, glaring from the back seat of his car. He added: ‘She is living her best life, while the police are the true victims.’

Pakeesuk has rescued more than 20 stray cats and several dogs over the years, so already had food, litter trays and toys set up at home.

Nub Tang having her paw print taken by a police officer
Nub Tang had her paw prints taken (Picture: Da Parinda Pakeesuk/Cover Images)

Social media users responded with their own jokes about the confrontational kitty’s situation.

One wrote: ‘That cat looks like she is frowning. She does not seem too grateful for her rescue.’

Nub Tang sat on a desk, with her written warning and paw prints laid out underneath her.
Nub Tang was handed a handwritten warning for her behaviour (Picture: Da Parinda Pakeesuk/Cover Images)

Another commented: ‘The suspect is so cute’

The next day, Nub Tang’s owner contacted the police and arrived at the station with a new lace collar.

But Nub Tang wasn’t let off that easily. Before being released and reunited with her owner, she posed for an official mugshot and was handed a mock police report, complete with her paw prints.

It read: ‘I was just hungry. I did not mean to bite anyone.’

Nub Tang from above, looking down on her written warning.
The officer said other cats could not be left with the impression it was acceptable to bite (Picture: Da Parinda Pakeesuk/Cover Images)

Pakeesuk gave her a light-hearted warning, adding: ‘This case must be handled properly. We cannot have other cats thinking that biting people is acceptable.’

He said no fines were issued and also encouraged social media users who wanted to adopt Nub Tang to either seek out their local shelter, or adopt some of the cats he had rescued.

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‘I tried to save doomed caver from most horrifying death imaginable – here’s why I couldn’t’

John Edward Jones was stuck upside down when he took a wrong turn in Nutty Putty caves (Pictures: Metro/Getty Images/iStockphoto)
John Edward Jones was stuck upside down when he took a wrong turn in Nutty Putty caves (Pictures: Metro/Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A first responder has described the final moments of John Edward Jones who went on a doomed spelunking trip to Utah’s now infamous Nutty Putty cave and never returned.

Jones, 26, suffered ‘one of the most horrifying deaths imaginable’ when he took a wrong turn and became trapped upside-down in a terrifyingly small crevice, essentially ‘crawling into his own grave’.

Unable to turn or move backwards, the 26-year-old father suffered 27 hours of hell as his family sent desperate messages of support by a two-way radio.

Now, the man tasked with the impossible job of trying to free him has spoken of his ordeal.

John Jones

A devout Christian, medical student and father to a newborn baby, John Edward Jones seemingly had the world at his feet.

John Edward Jones was an experienced spelunker who went on a caving trip with his brother (Picture: Jones Family Handout)
nutty putty cave
The Nutty Putty Cave was a well-known tourist attraction in Utah (Picture: MUSEUM FACTS)

Born into a large family, John and his brother Josh had been avid cavers when they were children, and sought to rekindle their love of spelunking with a trip to the Nutty Putty cave.

The brothers arrived at the cave with a party of nine other friends and relatives of varying degrees of experience- a fairly large group by caving standards.

Upon arrival, the group soon split off into two groups, with children and less-experienced adults exploring easier sections of the cave while the seasoned spelunkers went deeper.

It was here that things started to go wrong.

A rescuer from Utah Cave Rescue works to free John Jones from deep in the Nutty Putty cave. Jones died after being stuck in the crevice for more than 27 hours (Picture: Utah County Sheriff's Office) Photos courtesy Utah County Sheriff's Office
A rescuer works to free John Jones from deep in the Nutty Putty cave (Picture: Utah County Sheriff’s Office)

The rescue

John’s brother Josh was the first one to find him. Creeping forwards down the crevice just inches behind his brother, his stomach filled with dread when he saw John’s feet sticking out of the tiny hole which had swallowed him.

‘Seeing his feet and seeing how swallowed he was by the rock, that’s when I knew it was serious.’ Josh told the Salt Lake Tribune. ‘It was really serious.’

Josh tried to pull his brother out of the hole, but only managed to inch him up a little. As soon as he let John go, he slid right back into the crevice.

‘There was this, ‘I’m not getting him out,’ he said. ‘I don’t know how anyone is getting him out.’

As they waited for rescuers to arrive, they prayed together. At the end of the prayers, though, Josh could hear his own voice waiver and crack.

John began to comfort him, telling Josh it would be OK and to be good to his girlfriend.

‘The way we spoke’, Josh said, ‘it felt like John knew what the score was.’

Nutty Putty Cave map metro graphics
A map of the Nutty Putty cave (Picture: Metro.co.uk)

What transpired over the next few hours was an intense brainstorming session from a rescue party, who tried every method they could to free John from his subterranean prison. In addition to pulling him, they also tried lubing the walls and drilling away chunks of rock near John, but the hard material and the awkward position made the drilling slow and painful work.

After drilling over for an hour, they abandoned this approach after only managing to drill through a couple of inches of rock.

Disaster strikes

Eventually, the team came up with a plan to pull John to safety using a complex system of ropes and pulleys, which they would attach around his feet.

‘How are you?’ one rescuer asked.

‘It sucks. I’m upside down. I can’t believe I’m upside down,’ John responded. His eyes were red and looked tired but otherwise, had a smile on his face. ‘My legs are killing me,’ he added.

The team decided to take a quick break to regain their strength before making the final push. John was nearly out. But as they grabbed hold of the rope for the fourth and final time, something disastrous happened.

All of a sudden, the entire team fell backwards, and the rope became loose in their hands. The closest rescuer felt something hard hit him in the face, and momentarily blacked out from the impact. At the very last moment, one of the pulleys had collapsed under the strain and flown off the wall, sending John plunging right back into the crevice – even deeper than before.

John himself had become unresponsive. At this point he had been trapped for over 25 hours and his body had begun to break down from the stress and strain.

In a blog post, explorer and YouTuber Brandon Kowallis spoke of first arriving when Jones ‘was in and out of consciousness’ and talking about seeing ‘angels and demons around him’.

‘I went in first’, he wrote. ‘As I wormed my way in I felt my feet touch something soft which ended up being John’s feet. I felt them move and immediately lifted my feet and worked my way horizontally into the crack.

‘After stabilising myself by jamming my body into a narrower section of the crack I began speaking to John asking him how he was and introducing myself. There was no response.

‘I shifted my position a little and tapped him on the leg. I could hear him breathing a deep, gurgling breath, as though his lungs were filling with fluid.

‘Then his feet shifted as though he were trying to manoeuvre his legs out of the crack he was jammed in.

‘The kicking looked fairly frantic and after a second he stopped and it looked as though he had drifted into unconsciousness.’

He added:  ‘I continued tapping him on the legs and hip to see if I could get a response, but there was no response.

‘From there I spent a few minutes studying the passage, the positioning of John, and the rig that was set up, to see how we could get him out from here. It looked very bleak. I wondered if it was even possible to get him beyond this point.

‘There was a request to take the radio down to John so that his family could say some words to him. I think it was his father, mother, and wife who spoke to him, telling him that they loved him and were praying for him and that his father had given him a blessing. His wife mentioned a feeling of peace, that everything would be OK. She talked to him about 5 to 10 minutes before I told her that we needed to get back to working at getting him out.’

‘At that point I decided to try using the jack hammer. So we waited for it to arrive and then I carried it down to where John was located. The tool was much heavier than I anticipated and to hold it up while wedging my body in the crack took everything I had. Even then, I couldn’t get a good angle on the rock because of the confined space and limitations in my own mobility and positioning.’

He added: ‘And even if we could get him into a horizontal position, he would then have to maneuver the most difficult sections of the passage he was trapped in. 

‘If he were conscious and had his full strength there was a minute chance he could possibly do it. But even if that was the case it looked grim’.

He estimated it could take a week to free him using this method but now it was close to midnight and he was asked to check vitals on John.

‘I didn’t hear a distinct heartbeat, only some ruffling, fluttering sounds that were probably a result of me shaking as I tried to steady myself in an awkward location. I then jammed my hand between the rock and pressed as far up his torso I could go to feel for breathing. I didn’t think I felt anything.

‘I reported my findings to the paramedic above and then crawled out so that he could see if he could squeeze in.

‘He was able to get down to the point where he could feel his feet and confirm he had passed away. John Edward Jones was pronounced dead at 11.52.’

Hours of agony took a toll, and John suffered cardiac arrest due to his position ( Image: Jones Family Handout) Explainer- Nutty Putty Cave incident
The cave has since been sealed off in John’s memory (Picture: Jones Family Handout)

His wife Emily, still outside, refused to leave her husband’s body trapped inside the cave, and the local Sheriff assured her they would recover it.

But even following his death it was deemed too dangerous to attempt to recover his body, and the entrance to the passage he was trapped in was collapsed with controlled explosives.

Once it became clear that John’s remains couldn’t be safely removed from the cave, Nutty Putty was permanently sealed off and John’s family had a plaque put on the entrance of the cave in his memory.

Jones’s body remains entombed inside the dark cave to this day – his death becoming a cautionary tale about the dangers of spelunking.

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Body of man missing for 28 years found ‘perfectly preserved’ in glacier

Naseeruddin who was missing for 28 years and was found perfectly mummified in a glacier along the Kohistan mountain range
Naseeruddin was buried this week after his family and their ‘enemy’ family formed a brief truce

The body of a man missing for nearly 30 years has been found in a melting glacier in remote Pakistan.

Father-of-two Naseeruddin, 33, was travelling on horseback with his brother through Kohistan in June 1997.

Hearing gunfire, the two men fled, with Naseeruddin sprinting into a nearby cave in the snow-capped mountains of Lady Valley – he never came out.

Despite an extensive search organised by his brother, Kathiruddin, no trace of Naseeruddin was ever found, his family told The Express Tribune.

Local shepherd Umar Khan discovered the hiker’s body 28 years later, on August 1, inside a glacier, which has been melting for years.

Khan told BBC Urdu that the body was ‘completely intact’, his clothing wasn’t torn and he was still carrying his ID card.

Naseeruddin who was missing for 28 years and was found perfectly mummified in a glacier along the Kohistan mountain range
His body was found by a local shepherd (Picture: Facebook/General Raheel Sharif

‘What I saw was unbelievable,’ he added.

Naseeruddin fled from the area as his family were squabbling with an ‘enemy family’, his brother, Kathiruddin, said.

Naseeruddin was finally buried on Tuesday, leaving behind a son and daughter in their 20s.

Son Naeem said he hasn’t stepped into his hometown for years in the daylight because of the family feud.

‘Now I have come with my father’s body,’ he said.

‘The pain of travelling to his native area with my father after so many years cannot be described in words.’

Police confirmed the identity of the remains as that of Naseeruddin, from Saleh Khel, a village by the Cherat mountains, home to various tribes.

On the day he disappeared, the two men were travelling back from Alai, a nearby village they often visited to buy livestock and horses to sell for money.

The brothers took a more remote route due to the ongoing family feud when they were separated.

‘I turned back and reached the place where I saw that my brother had gone inside the cave, but there was nothing there,’ said Kathiruddin.

Kohistan, a Persian word meaning land of mountains is an administrative district in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.Kohistan is where Karakorum, Hindukush and Himalayas meet making it one of the unique mountain ecosystems of the world.
Kohistan is a remote region in eastern Pakistan (Picture: Getty Images)

What happens when a human is frozen?

When we think of humans freezing, one thing that might come to mind is cryonics, storing bodies at deep freeze until the future.

But the human body cannot survive being frozen, which happens quickly in glacier conditions.

The body cannot survive even the smallest internal temperature change from 37°C; hypothermia happens two degrees less than that.

Glaciers are full of ice, and people can’t survive with ice in their bodies. By the time someone’s insides reach 0°C, most cells and organs are already dead.

If someone becomes trapped in a glacier, the lack of air and moisture causes the body to mummify, slowing down decomposition.

There are no examples of humans being brought back to life after being thawed, according to experts.

After Naseeruddin’s body was found, the bad blood between the families made burying him in his hometown almost impossible.

But the locals held a jirga, when tribal representatives hold a meeting, to put in place a nine-day ‘ceasefire’ between the families.

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