Some of the Shocking World Tragedies Of 2015.

The media has become a particularly strong communication method to inform the world about what’s going on everywhere, wherever you may be. As 2015 draws to a close, we are reminded that we live in a world that needs hope more than anything else. Thousands this year have lost their lives to tragedies and events that could have been averted. While many are eagerly waiting for 2016, thousands across the globe will be trying to cope with the calamities and losses of 2015. Here we look back on some of the events of 2015 that shocked the world. source: http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/most-shocking/10-shocking-world-tragedies-of-2015/?view=all http://m.ibtimes.co.in/tragedies-2015-that-shocked-world-659610

2. TransAsia Airways Flight 235. On February 4, 2015. Just 37 seconds after taking off and reaching an altitude of 1,200 feet, the TransAsia Airways Flight 235 crashed on a highway in Taiwan. The right engine had failed before the pilot turned off the left engine, manually. He was planning on restarting the engine, but couldn’t. When one engine fails on a plane, it automatically goes into gliding mode, which usually allows the pilot enough time to get it back to the airport. However, this time, because the left engine was shut off as well, the plane couldn’t glide and crashed on the highway, and continued its way into a nearby river. Of the 58 people on board, only 15 survived.

3. Mecca Grand Mosque Crane Crash. The tragedy occurred when a crane crashed through the ceiling of the Grand Mosque of Mecca, the largest mosque in the world, amid high winds and thunderstorms on Friday afternoon, 11th September, 2015. Killing about 107 people and wounded over 2

4. Hajj Stampede. On 24 September 2015, a crowd collapse caused the deaths of at least 2,236 pilgrims who were suffocated or crushed during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mina, Mecca, making it the deadliest Hajj disaster in history. Estimates of the number of dead vary; the Associated Press reported 2,411dead, while Agence France-Press reported 2,236 killed. Based on the total of the individual national reports cited in the table below, at least 2,427people died. The official death toll from the government of Saudi Arabia remains unchanged since two days after the event, with 769 reported killed and 934 others injured. source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Mina_stampede?_e_pi_=7%2CPAGE_ID10%2C3970501426

5. Nepal Earthquake A massive earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 hit Nepal on 25 April. The quake killed over 9,000 people and an estimated 23,000 were injured in the natural calamity. The violence of the shock triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, which killed at least 19 people. About 250 others disappeared. Many UNESCO World Heritage Sites were destroyed, such as the Kathmandu Durbar Square, the Patan Durbar Square, the Bhaktapur Durbar Square, the Changu Narayan Temple and the Swayambhunath. Villages were flattened and hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless. On May 12, another earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 occurred closer to the Chinese border, injuring another 2,500 people, and killing more than 200.

6. Tijiang Blast. On 12 August, a series of explosions rocked the industrial port town of Tianjin in China. At least 173 people were killed and 797 were injured in the massive explosions inside the warehouse owned by acompany called Ruihai International Logistics. The impact of the blast was felt within a 10 km radius of the port city, and left a massive crater at the explosion site.

7. Refugee Crisis. The Refugee Crisis, also known as the European Migrant Crisis, started in April 2015 when five boats sank in the Mediterranean sea which killed around 1,200 refugees coming mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea. The refugees are fleeing their countries due to violent conflicts in North Africa and Middle East, seeking asylum into European countries. The number of forcibly displaced people worldwide reached 59.5 million at the end of 2014, the highest level since World War II. The most recent event that went viral in the media was the death of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian boy who drowned in the Mediterranean sea. Because Kurdi’s family was trying to reach Canada, his death immediately became an issue in the 2015 Canadian federal election, forcing the government to promise the welcoming of more refugees.

8. Attack On Paris, November,13 2015. Attack Timeline: * Stade De France: The attacks began at 8.17pm GMT at the Stade de France where the French football team was hosting Germany in an international friendly. The game was being watched by 80,000 spectators, among them was President Francois Hollande who had to be evacuated from the stadium. The first explosion, a suicide bombing, was at an entrance to the stadium. A suicide bomber approached the gate with a match ticket when he was frisked by a security guard who turned him away. He backed away from the gate and detonated his vest at about 8.20pm GMT near Gate D of the stadium, killing one other person. A passport with the name Ahmed Almuhamed, 25, from Syria, was allegedly found nearby. The second suicide bomber, Bilal Hadfi, 20, blew himself up near Gate H several minutes later. No one else was reported killed. Hadfi is said to have fought with ISIS in Syria. * Third Attack: Le Petit Cambodge And Le Carillon Bar. At 8.25pm GMT a separate team of gunmen arrived in a Black Seat and attacked diners at popular Cambodian restaurant Le Petit Cambodge and Le Carillon bar in the trendy Canal Saint-Martin area of eastern Paris, killing 15. * Fourth Attack: La Casa Nostra pizzeria And La Belle Eqipe Bar. The same unit then drove about 500 yards to La Casa Nostra pizzeria and opened fire on diners on the terrace of the restaurant, killing at least five people. From there, the militants drove around a mile south-east apparently past the area of the Bataclan concert venue to launch another attack, this time on La Belle Equipe bar in Rue de Charonne. At least 19 people died after the terrace was sprayed with bullets at 8.38pm GMT. The attackers then drove off. * Fifth Attack: CAFÉ ‘COMPTOIR VOLTAIRE’. Five minutes later, Ibrahim Abdeslam, 31, set off a suicide vest outside the outside cafe 'Comptoir Voltaire' on the Boulevard Voltaire and close to the Bataclan theatre. He hired a black Seat car used in the attack. * Sixth Attack: Bataclan Music Hall. At 8.49pm GMT, the third group (believed to be three men and a woman) armed with AK-47s stormed the Bataclan music hall and began shooting members of the crowd. Survivors claim three blew themselves up and a fourth person was shot dead by police before they could detonate their bomb. * Seventh Attack: Near Stade De France. At around 8.50pm GMT a third blast took place near the Stade de France, this time by a McDonald’s restaurant on the fringes of the stadium. The boom caused terror among spectators who had already been attempting to flee the stadium following the first two explosions. The attacker who detonated his suicide vest was identified as a 20-year-old French man living in Belgium. * Bataclan Concert Massacre, Paris. A harrowing image has emerged from inside the Bataclan theatre where terrorists opened fire on concert goers on Friday night 13th November, 2015 killing at least 89 people and injuring dozens, possibly hundreds, more. The photograph, taken in the wake of the attack, details the blood stained interior of the concert hall where bodies remain lying on the ground and the floor is covered in debris. It comes as new footage shows the moment the members of U.S. rock band Eagles of Death Metal stopped their performance midway through a song when gunfire broke out. The violence at the Bataclan unfolded as part of a series of co-ordinated ISIS attacks across the heart of Paris on Friday evening in the worst violence to strike France since the Second World War. At least 129 people are dead, and another 349 injured, after the three teams of jihadis attacked the Stade de France football stadium, a handful of bars and cafes, and then finally the Bataclan concert hall. * Photos: Minutes before the shooting and after.

Stade de France Stadium: French President Francois Hollande learns from his bodyguard of the terrorist attack in Paris on Friday night during the friendly football match between France and Germany.

Hundreds of spectators at the football game on Friday night invade the pitch after they realise suicide bombs have gone off outside the stadium.

Flowers are placed in bullets holes which riddle the window of the Carillon Bar where diners were attacked on Friday night.

* Two soldiers wanders beneath the Eiffel Tower. Thousands of French troops were deployed around Paris while tourist sites such as the Tower and Disneyland were closed.

9. Baga Massacre. The 2015 Baga massacre was a series of mass killings carried out by the jihadist group Boko Haram in the Nigerian town of Baga and its environs, in the state of Borno, between 3rd January and 7th January 2015. The attack began on 3rd January when Boko Haram over ran a military base that was the headquarters of the Multinational Joint Task Force containing troops from Chad, Niger, and Nigeria. The militants then forced thousands of locals from the region and committed mass killings that culminated on the 7th. Fatalities have been reported to be "heavy" but their extent is unclear. Several western media reported that "over 2,000" people are thought to have been killed or "unaccounted for", but local media reported "at least a hundred" fatalities, while the Nigerian Ministry of Defence said that no more than 150 people in total had been killed, including militants. Several government officials denied that the fatalities were as extensive as reported, with some even claiming that the massacre had never taken place or that the Nigerian military had repelled the militants from the region,a claim that was refuted by local officials, survivors, and the international media. Baga and at least 16 other towns are thought to have been destroyed as over 35,000 people are reported to have been displaced, with many feared to have drowned while trying to cross Lake Chad and others trapped on islands in the lake. The attacks are said to have resulted in Boko Haram extending its control to over 70% of Borno State, while its leader, Abubakar Shekau, claimed responsibility for the massacre in a video statement, saying that they "were not much" and that the group's insurgency "would not stop". source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Baga_massacre?_e_pi_=7%2CPAGE_ID10%2C9028355648

10. Xenophobic Attack, SA. Violent clashes between immigrants and locals flared up in South Africa, as impoverished residents accuse them of taking their jobs. source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3044680/Bloodied-left-die-Latest-victim-anti-immigrant-violence-carried-black-locals-crawls-hospital-South-African-police-struggle-stop-armed-gangs.html