chennai l monday l april 27, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late city EDITION Kenya’s Sawe enters history books in London marathon African athlete, the current World No. 1, created history by becoming the first human to dip under the two hour mark in the marathon. A look... importance of breaking two-hour barrier why it was only a matter of time? For a long time, humans thought this record would be impossible to achieve. Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, in association with Nike, in fact dipped below the two hour mark at Vienna in 2019. However, he did it in a controlled environment so it wasn’t valid for the purposes of a world record. Now, Sawe has done it. Yomif Kejelcha, who came second, also went under two-hour mark (1:59.41). ■ ■ Shoe technology has improved massively. The importance of science and holistic training approaches is evident. Also, the marathon, at the elite level, has seen official times be repeatedly slashed. The 16 fastest timings in history have all come since 2019. In fact, this is one record which has kept breaking. 1:59.30 Sawe’s timings at London marathon on sunday CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Big breach as gunman opens fire at US says Iran sent DC gala attended by Trump, Vance ‘better’ proposal, Suspect stopped by Secret Service agents as he rushed to ballroom where prez was seated Gunman was ‘engineer’ and ‘teacher of the month’ A g e n c i e s @ Washington Stir over man’s death in jumbo attack: 6 forest staff injured E X P RESS NEWS SER V ICE @ Nilgiris Six temporary forest staff were injured after a protest sparked by the death of a man in a wild elephant attack turned violent in Gudalur’s O-Valley on Saturday night. Protesters also attacked police personnel and pelted stones at a forest department vehicle, sources said. Two people were arrested and police are searching for four others. The tension arose after a 45-year-old man was trampled to death by a wild elephant at Arottuparai in O-Valley Panchayat of the Gudalur forest division in Nilgiris district. The deceased was identified as T Kalaiselvan, a resident of Fourth Division, O-Valley Estate. Around 8.45 pm, Kalaiselvan went to switch on a motor pump to fetch water for cooking ‘annadhanam’. He was part of a group preparing the food for a Vinayakar temple festival in the locality. According to sources, the elephant, which was grazing in the nearby bushes, suddenly attacked Kalaiselvan, killing him on the spot. Neighbours, who heard his screams, rushed to the area and chased the animal away . Subsequently residents gath, ered near Kalaiselvan’s body and staged a protest, accusing the forest department of failing to take action to prevent human-animal conflict in the region. They refused to allow the department staff to retrieve the body for postmortem.  P5 E x p r e s s Re a d India, NZ to sign free trade pact today New Delhi: India and New Zealand are set to sign a free trade pact on Monday, more than four months after announcing the conclusion of negotiations on December 22 last year. The pact will give India companies duty-free access to the island nation’s markets. The FTA will be signed in the presence of commerce minister Piyush Goyal and Todd McClay, New Zealand’s trade minister, in New Delhi P11 A man armed with guns and knives stormed the lobby of a hotel in Washington where US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday night. Reports said the gunman was confronted and stopped just outside the ballroom of the hotel where the president and other senior government officials had gathered. Investigators said they believe the gunman, identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen from Los Angeles, planned to target Trump. Video posted online showed the suspect running past security barricades as Secret Service agents ran toward him. One officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest but was recovering, officials said. The gunman was tackled to the ground and was not injured. The security breach occurred after the welcoming speech and during dinner, before Trump was due to speak.Vice President J D Vance was removed from the room first, while agents initially covered Trump in place before escorting him and first lady Melania Trump from the room. They were held On his LinkedIn profile, suspect Cole Tomas Allen calls himself an engineer with a passion for game development. It says he was also a part-time teacher at a test prep firm, which named him as “teacher of the month” in an Instagram post from 2024 Trump calls for unity and bipartisan healing Secret service agents evacuate US President Donald Trump from the venue of an event after gunshots were fired; (inset) Trump speaks at the White House later on | AP I heard a noise and sort of thought it was a tray going down. It was a pretty loud noise, and it was from quite far away. He hadn’t reached the area at all. They really got him — Donald Trump for some time in a secure presidential suite at the hotel before returning to the White House. According to acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche the suspect was staying at the Washington Hilton hotel where the black-tie dinner was held on Saturday evening. As per reports, he is a teacher, who donated to Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. His motive was not clear. Trump said the suspect had written an anti-Christian mani- festo. “The guy is a sick guy he ,” told Fox News. “When you read his manifesto, he hates Christians.” Trump said the suspect’s family had reported him to the police ahead of the event. Questions swirled regarding the security at the reception and how a gun was brought into the hotel. Attendees pointed out while there was a magnetometer placed outside the ballroom, there was no security screening at the entrance to the hotel itself.  P9 US President Donald Trump called for unity and bipartisan healing after the incident, saying his personal politics had made him a repeated target. “It’s always shocking when something like this happens. Happened to me, a little bit. And that never changes,” a subdued Trump told reporters Relieved to learn Trump and Vance are safe: Modi Reacting to the shooting incident, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was relieved that US President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and Vice President J D Vance are safe and unharmed. Violence has no place in a democracy, he added Araghchi back in Pak A g e n c i e s @ Washington / Islamabad There were hopes on Sunday that the eagerly awaited second round of talks between Iran and the US could take place in the days ahead, after President Donald Trump said Iran has sent a “better proposal” and the Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi returned to Pakistan briefly for further talks with the Pakistani leadership. Trump proposed the US and Iranian officials can talk by phone for a peace solution to the conflict. In an interview on Fox News Channel, Trump said he made that decision rather than send day a delegation on a 17-hour flight. It came hours after he told reporters that his administration received a new proposal from Iran. Israel bombs “They gave us a paper that should south Lebanon have been better. And interestingly , immediately, when I cancelled it, Lebanese official media said within 10 minutes, we got a new paIsrael’s military began striking per that was much better,” Trump the country’s south on Sunday after issuing an evacuation said. warning for seven locations, In a sign that indirect efforts were despite a ceasefire with the ongoing, the ISNA news agency reIran-backed Hezbollah group. ported that Iran had transmitted “Israeli warplanes launched “written messages” to the Ameria strike” in Kfar Tibnit—one cans via Pakistan that were “about of the locations included in some of the red lines of the Islamic the warning—the state-run Republic of Iran, including nuclear National News Agency said issues and the Strait of Hormuz”. Meanwhile, a day after he left Islamabad without meeting the US delegation, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi returned to Pakistan on Sunday and met Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir. Geo News, quoting sources, reported that Araghchi left for Moscow after the brief visit. The Iranian leader arrived at Nur Khan Airbase in Rawalpindi after completing a day-long visit to Oman, the Dawn newspaper reported, quoting sources. Araghchi was to convey “Iran’s positions and views on the framework of any understanding to completely end the war”, Geo TV reported. 58 4 hurt amid rescue after Chittoor-Thatchur access-controlled fire on Swiss jet in Delhi expressway to be open from May 1 S l a l i t h a @ New Delhi B A NBUSELV A N @ Chennai Four passengers were injured during evacuation after a Swiss International Airlines (SWISS) jet carrying 245, including four infants, aborted takeoff from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport due to a fire in the early hours of Sunday . A source said the passengers were injured during the evacuation process and are being treated at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram. It is not clear how they were injured. Flight No LX147, bound for Zurich, was about to take off at 1.08 am from runway 10/28 of Terminal 3 with 245 on board, including four infants and 13 crew members, when smoke was detected near a wheel, prompting the pilot to abort takeoff. “The Airbus A330 aircraft was accelerating on the runway for take-off when the pilot detected smoke from the left wheel located at the rear of the plane. He immediately decided to abandon the take-off,” the source said. The airline spokesperson later said an issue occurred with one of the engines during the takeoff. An emergency was declared for 30 minutes at the runway 10/28 in Delhi airport, he added. With the completion of a majority of the widening works, the Chittoor-Thatchur six-lane greenfield expressway (NH 716 B) is set to open for traffic from May 1, making the northern parts of Chennai in the Tiruvallur district the first region in Tamil Nadu to gain use of an access-controlled expressway. Of the expressway’s total distance of 116.5 km, only 20.5 km is left to be widened, and the works are scheduled to be completed by December 2026. The expressway, once completed, will primarily allow faster freight movement from industrial units in Bengaluru in Kar nataka and Andhra Pradesh to Kamarajar Port (Ennore) and Kattupalli ports, without the need to enter Chen- Passengers being evacuated from Swiss International Airlines flight | X Switzerland to send specialists to Delhi The Swiss said technical specialists from Switzerland will travel to Delhi to inspect the aircraft. Passengers have been accommodated in hotels and rebooked onto alternative flights Forty-one km of the Chittoor-Thatchur expressway passes through Tiruvallur | Express nai city. It will be the state’s first highway to have closed toll plazas, allowing vehicles to pay fees only for the exact distance travelled between the entry and exit points on the highway . Out of the total 116.5 km, 75 km runs through Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh, while 41.5 km passes through Tiruvallur in Tamil Nadu. Of this, 96 km from Chittoor to Uthuko- ttai have been widened into a six-lane access-controlled expressway with a design speed of 100 km/h. The road was opened for trial a few days ago. The remaining 20.5-km stretch from Uthukottai to Thatchur, currently a two-lane road, is being widened into six lanes. The project has been divided into four packages and developed at a cost of `5,486.32 crore.  P5 The chronicler of the real India story, who captured the nation’s fleeting moments with his lens for six decades, lost his battle to cancer on Sunday. He shot some of the most significant historical events, including the Bangladesh refugee crisis and Bhopal gas tragedy, and his black-and-white photos shed light on ordinary lives with abundant clarity and unmatched compassion | P7 Final lap Swing factors ahead of crucial phase-2 polls in West Bengal SUBHENDU M A ITI @ Kolkata The calculations may all come down to whether the talk of a 5-6 per cent “Hindu swing” is fully borne out, even if that may not necessarily be the correct political designation for those looking for a change in West Bengal. With the state careening towards the climactic second and final phase of voting in the remaining 142 out of 294 assembly constituencies on Wednesday, the signs are certainly not those of unquestioned status quo. But how much mobility will be there in set voting patterns? Polarisation has created tight consolidation at the core but also shakiness at the edges, with even Trinamool Congress supporters not immune to doubt and restlessness. Speaking to this newspaper, Debashis Ghosh, a packaged milk seller, said: “I have been voting for Mamata Didi since 2011 but this time, I may not.” Ghosh participated in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Sunday roadshow around Thanthania Kalibari and Shobha Bazaar in north Kolkata. T h e B J P ’s campaign may preach to the choir but may also be winning some new converts. Not all of it is on account of the politics of religion. Plain old anti-incumbency and the desire for change may be enough to explain it. But the SIR-related panic is mostly working to Trinamool’s advantage. Prof Abdul Matin of Jadavpur University said, “It has success- Youth murders 74-year-old on moving MTC bus over spat E X P RESS NEWS SER V ICE @ Chennai Raghu Rai no dies at 83 more legendary photo journalist “Four passengers remain in the hospital... A cabin crew member sustained a sprained ankle. The other crew members are unharmed,” an airline spokesperson said. All passengers and crew were evacuated via the emergency slides. “For a small number of individuals who were unable to use the slides, stairs were provided,” the airline spokesperson said. high on ganja? fully spread a message around SIR through its rural bodies.” For Trinamool supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the crucial part is whether there is any parallel thinning of her minority vote bank, estimated at around 30 per cent. Neither the Hindu vote nor the Muslim bloc is a monolith. Subtle shifts of allegiance are visible even on the latter side. Matiur Rahaman, a resident of Murshidabad district, said: “A large number of Muslim voters are worried about Didi’s stand on Waqf and OBC issues and may support the Left and the Congress this time.” Poll analyst Prof Biswanath Chakraborty felt the same: “Both Left and Congress will win some seats in North Dinajpur, Malda, Murshidabad and North 24 Parganas.” In a shocking incident, a 74-year-old man was allegedly assaulted and killed by a fellow passenger inside a Vadapalanibound MTC bus on Sunday noon, following an argument. Police suspect that the accused was under the influence of ganja at the time of the incident. According to police sources, the deceased, identified as Chandrasekaran of Chennai, boarded the route 70-G bus, plying between Guduvancheri and Vadapalani, at the Tambaram MEPZ bus stop while the accused, Amarnath (25) of Villupuram, got on at Tambaram. Amarnath proceeded to look at the LED display on the bus and asked Chandrasekaran C h a n drasekaran, who was sitting nearby to read , out what was written on it. “Chandrasekaran was reluctant to engage with Amarnath and asked him to approach the conductor,” said a police source. This resulted in a heated argument between them inside the moving bus. The conductor intervened and asked Chandrasekaran to shift to another seat in the front of the bus. As he got up to move, another round of arguments erupted ending in Amarnath strangling Chandrasekaran before assaulting him in the face and chest. Chandrasekaran collapsed onto the floor of the bus,” a police officer said. The driver halted the bus and co-passengers rushed Chandrasekaran to a nearby hospital in an auto but he was declared dead on arrival.  P5