Police in Pakistan have arrested an uncle of Sara Sharif because they suspect he knows where her father, stepmother and another uncle, all wanted over her murder, are hiding.

Urfan Sharif fled the UK with his partner Beinash Batool, brother Faisal Malik and his five children – a day before police discovered Sara’s body at the family home in Woking, Surrey.

The three adults are wanted for questioning over Sara’s murder, leading to an international manhunt.

Sara was found at the property on August 10 by police who received a call from someone concerned by her welfare.

An autopsy has not established a cause of death, but it did show Sara had suffered ‘multiple and extensive injuries, which are likely to have been caused over a sustained and extended period of time’, Surrey police said.

As detectives in Pakistan try to locate them, sources told MailOnline that they have detained another of Mr Sharif’s brothers, Imran, because they are ‘convinced’ that he knows where the family is hiding.

Sources also revealed that Mr Sharif’s parents along with other relatives, who live in a large house in the city of Jhelum in Pakistan’s Punjab province, have also now gone into hiding.

A police source said: ‘We spoke to Imran and some of the family members last week and they insisted that they did not know where Urfan and his family are. But we don’t believe them, there’s absolutely no way that they can’t know where eight of their relatives who have come from England are. They are telling us a pack of lies.’

The source revealed that the family home in Jhelum is locked and now empty and a shop they run which adjoins their home is also locked up.

They added: ‘We managed to get hold of Imran, but the rest of his family have gone missing. They clearly have something to hide. We have got hold of one of them and will be interrogating him until he tells us the truth.’

Last week, Imran exclusively told MailOnline that Mr Sharif visited the family home after arriving in Pakistan on August 9, but came alone and that they had not seen him since.

He said: ‘After reaching Pakistan he came to us and instantly disappeared. He did not bring his family to our home. Some people say he is hiding somewhere in Jhelum in a rented house, but others said he may be gone to Mirpur where his in laws are living.’

He added: ‘Police has raided our home twice during the last week and took pictures of Urfan and other family members. We have been warned to inform police immediately soon after receiving his whereabouts.’

Imran is being questioned by police in Jhelum and officers from Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency.

Sources also told MailOnline that they have been unable to find a precise location for Ms Batool’s parents who live in the city of Mirpur, which is around two hours away from Jhelum. Imran initially claimed that Mr Sharif’s family had gone there.

The source added: ‘We have the mobile phone numbers for Sharif and the other people with him who came from the UK. We are doing our utmost to trace them electronically but it’s not proving to be very easy.’

Surrey Police revealed that Sara’s body was discovered on August 10 after Mr Sharif called them from Pakistan, which led police to search the £500,000 family council house.

Although post-mortem tests could not determine the cause of death, the results revealed bruises on her body which showed the little girl ‘had suffered multiple and extensive injuries, which are likely to have been caused over a sustained and extended period of time’.

Sara’s mother, Polish woman Olga Sharif, 36, who was married to Mr Sharif between 2009 to 2017, urged her ex-husband to ‘come forward and explain himself’.

Olga, who lives in Somerset, praised British police for doing a good job in trying to track him down.

She said: ‘The police are doing a good job finding him.’

Heartbroken Olga praised her daughter as ‘an amazing child,’ adding: ‘She was so beautiful. I can’t believe she’s dead.’

Olga hopes to bury her child back in her native Poland.

Cable car horror leaves children trapped 900ft above the ground after wire snaps above Pakistan valley

• Six children trapped inside a cable car dangling over Pakistan valley 
• Children were using cable car to get to school in mountainous area in Battagram
• Two others were in vehicle when wire snapped at a height of 900 feet 

By Zac Campbell

Published: 04:53 EDT, 22 August 2023 | Updated: 06:25 EDT, 22 August 2023

The Norwegian mountaineer accused of stepping over a porter who lay dying on K2 has rubbished the claims, saying she is a victim of ‘misinformation’.

Kristin Harila, 37, became the fastest climber to scale the world’s 14 tallest mountains, finishing with the summit in Pakistan on July 27 after just 92 days.

But Harila and her team were accused of clambering over 27-year-old Muhammad Hassan as he lay dying because they were more concerned about breaking records. 

Hassan, part of the team ahead of them, was unable to talk or hear after falling from a narrow ledge on a bottleneck part of the mountain and died two hours later.

Video has since emerged of Harila’s team appearing to step over the father of three, with fellow mountaineers accusing them of being more focused on the record than saving his life. 

Harila says that she has been the victim of ‘hatred’ and death threats for celebrating her feat, and wrote on Instagram: ‘This was no one’s fault, you cannot comment when you do not understand the situation and sending death threats is never okay.’

She said that her team stayed behind for 90 minutes trying to pull the Sherpa up before an avalanche forced them to move on.

Harila wrote that the incident ‘happened at the most dangerous part of the deadliest mountain in the world’, urging critics to ‘remember that at 8000+ metres, your survival instincts impact the decision you make’.

She added: ‘I did not see exactly what took place, but suddenly Hassan had fallen and was hanging on the rope between two ice anchors.

‘At first, nobody moved, probably out of shock and fear, then we realised he was hanging upside down and was not able to climb up by himself.

‘We decided to continue forward, as too many people in the bottleneck would make it more dangerous for a rescue.’ 

She said: ‘The bottleneck is a dangerous place to be, there is snow and ice hanging over you, and you are walking on an extremely narrow path, on snow that can collapse below you at any time.’

‘Every minute you stay there increases the risk of accidents, not only for yourself, but for everyone above and below you.’ 

Even after the group moved on, she said two mountaineers stayed behind trying to help Hassan. 

She added: ‘Considering the amount of people that stayed behind and that had turned around, I believed Hassan would be getting all the help he could, and that he would be able to get down. 

‘We did not fully understand the gravity of everything that happened until later.’

Harila described Hassan as ‘a person who was important to so many people and he should not just be remembered as a person who passed on K2’. 

Harila also shared a link to a GoFundMe page raising money for Hassan’s family, set up by climber Wilhelm Steindl.

Steindl, who took part in the climb but had returned to the base camp earlier due to dangerous conditions, told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that he was sickened by the inaction of the fellow climbers.

‘It was a very heated, competitive race to the top. What happened there is scandalous.

‘A living person is left behind so records can be set. It only took three or four people to save him. 

‘Had I seen it, I would have climbed up to help the poor man.’ 

But Harila defended her actions to The Daily Telegraph, saying ‘we did all we could for him’.

She added: ‘It is simply not true to say that we did nothing to help him. 

‘We tried to lift him back up for an hour and a half and my cameraman stayed on for another hour to look after him. At no point was he left alone.’

She said that given the conditions it was unlikely he could have been saved as he had fallen on to what was ‘probably the most dangerous part of the mountain where the chances of carrying someone off were limited by the narrow trail and poor snow conditions’.

Harila is also accused of holding a party shortly after clinching the record – despite Hassan’s death.

On Instagram at the time, she posted a final summit reel celebrating their success.

The post received backlash from users, one of whom accused her of ‘crossing him twice without helping’.

Anwar Syed, of Lela Peak Expedition which employed Hassan, told MailOnline that two climbers ‘tried their hardest to bring him down but they couldn’t do it and [Hassan] passed away after two hours’. 

The expedition group claims it offered payment to other porters to retrieve the body but ‘everyone said that it’s impossible to bring him down’.

Syed said that Hassan was much higher up than three climbers whose bodies were previously deemed unrecoverable from the mountain in Pakistan.

Harila also said that she had found out Hassan had died only as she climbed back down the mountain.

She said her team was unable to recover the body as it was ‘impossible to safely carry him down’.

She added: ‘Back in base camp, we heard that people thought no one had helped him but we had. We had done our best, especially Gabriel [the cameraman]. 

‘It is truly tragic what happened, and I feel very strongly for the family.

‘Please, please, please. Be kind. Not just to those who went up to K2 that day and who have all lived through something very difficult. 

‘But most importantly, to Hassan’s memory and those close to him. Be respectful.’

Just two climbers tried to help a dying sherpa on the world’s second highest mountain as fellow mountaineers edged around.  

Muhammad Hassan, 27, lay seriously injured 1,300ft from the summit of K2 after slipping in a bottle neck area of the mountain on July 27.

The father of three was said to have ‘slipped and stayed hanging’ with a rope and couldn’t ‘talk or even hear’ as he waited for help.

The expedition was his first working with the group Lela Peak Expedition though it isn’t known whether it was his first as a climber.

Anwar Syed, of Lela Peak Expedition, told Mail Online that two climbers ‘tried their hardest to bring him down but they couldn’t do it and he passed away after two hours’. 

The expedition group claims it offered payment to other porters to retrieve the body but ‘everyone said that it’s impossible to bring him down’.

Mr Syed said that Mr Hassan was much higher up than three climbers whose bodies were previously deemed unrecoverable from the mountain in Pakistan.

Fellow mountaineers have accused climbers of being more interested in setting records than saving the life of the porter.

Footage shows dozens of fellow climbers carefully edging towards him, risking their lives as they clung to the side of the narrow ledge.

They then clambered around the stricken 27-year-old as they continued up the mountain.

Norway’s Kristin Harila and her team who passed by Hassan are among those who have been criticised.

She is also accused of holding a party shortly after clinching the record that saw her climb 14 of the world’s highest peaks in just over three months – despite Hassan’s death.

She has claimed that she and her team did everything they could to help Hassan but the conditions on K2 were too dangerous to move him. 

But mountaineer Philip Flämig, an Austrian who was climbing with Wilhelm Steindl, said footage the two recorded using a drone shows a trail of climbers walking over the stricken body instead of helping Hassan.

‘He is being treated by one person while everyone else is pushing towards the summit.

‘The fact is that there was no organised rescue operation although there were Sherpas and mountain guides on site who could have taken action.’ 

He called the death a ‘disgrace’ and said ‘such a thing would be unthinkable in the Alps’ – referencing the ongoing debate about how Sherpas are used in the Himalayas.

‘If he had been a Westerner, he would have been rescued immediately. No one felt responsible for him,’ he told the Austrian publication.

‘A living human was left lying so that records could be set.’

Harila defended her actions to The Daily Telegraph, saying ‘we did all we could for him’.

She added: ‘It is simply not true to say that we did nothing to help him. We tried to lift him back up for an hour and a half and my cameraman stayed on for another hour to look after him. At no point was he left alone.’

She said that given the conditions it was unlikely he could be saved as he had fallen on to what was ‘probably the most dangerous part of the mountain where the chances of carrying someone off were limited by the narrow trail and poor snow conditions’.

The footage of the fatality last month shows people physically climbing over Hassan as he lies helpless in the deep snow. 

The video then pans over to show clouds several thousand feet below them, revealing just how high they were when the footage was taken.

The air is so thin at this elevation that all people seen in the video were wearing oxygen masks. 

It appears that just one person ended up helping him, an unknown rescuer who managed to keep him conscious for a while before he died of his injuries. There was no rescue operation to help the young man. 

Steindl, who participated in the climb but had returned to the base camp earlier due to the dangerous conditions, also told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that he was sickened by the inaction of the fellow climbers.

‘It was a very heated, competitive race to the top. What happened there is scandalous.

‘A living person is left behind so records can be set. It only took 3 or 4 people to save him. Had I seen it, I would have climbed up to help the poor man.’ 

Despite these strong claims, differing accounts of the tragedy have circulated, leading to uncertainty over exactly what took place all the way up K2. 

Lakpa Sherpa, a mountaineer who was on the climb and took the video, told MailOnline that the footage doesn’t capture what actually happened: 

‘Some of the climbers and Sherpas tried to save his life although he passed away. 

‘The climbers have all spent a lot of money to do this climb and there is the value of time too for the climb. Hundreds of climbers tried to save him but they cannot give up their mission. 

‘The reality is they have tried to save the life and this is below the great serace bottle neck, where it’s impossible to cross without rope so it’s a very difficult situation. 

‘Many climbers and sherpas told him to go back as he had very poor equipment and was not well equipped and also there was very bad weather during the summit window but he did not listen and then he fell down. 

‘It was very difficult to bring the body down. They have to summit the mountain. There’s only a little chance for them.’ 

Bulgarian climber Silvia Azdreeva, who was on the trip when Hassan died, said in a Facebook post that climbing K2 is not for the faint-hearted: ‘On K2 there is no one to save you that fast, you’ll have to wait for days if something happens to you. 

‘This mountain is not for everyone. K2 has a very heavy character.’

Shockingly, Wilhelm Steindl claimed that a party was held shortly after Mr. Hassan died in celebration of Kristin Harila, a Norwegian woman who set a new world record after she climbed the 14 of the world’s highest peaks in just over 3 months.

‘I didn’t go, I was disgusted. Someone had just died up there,’ the furious climber said.

He revealed in a GoFundMe set up for Mr. Hassan’s family that he leaves behind three children and a wife, as well as an elderly grandmother. 

At time of publication, the page has already raised £63,000.

The newly-crowned world record holder Kristin Harila said of the tragedy: ‘My heart and thoughts and prayers go out to the family and loved ones of Hassan and I feel very sad about this whole situation.’

K2 is considered to be the world’s most dangerous mountain as it has a fatality rate of around 19 per cent compared to just 6.5 per cent on Everest, according to estimates.

For every 20 people who summit Everest, only one summits K2 and there are inherently more risks.

Routes on K2 are not as defined or well laid out with the climb being much more technical with a combination of rock, ice and alpine climbing – and avalanches are also much more common.

The mountain gained notoriety as the ‘Savage Mountain’ after American mountaineer George Bell came down from the peak in 1953 where he nearly slipped to his death.

‘It’s a savage mountain that tries to kill you,’ he observed following his traitorous climb.

As Mohammad Hassan lay seriously injured, 1,300ft from the summit of K2, dozens of fellow climbers carefully edged towards him, risking their lives as they clung to the side of the narrow ledge.

And then they kept on going – clambering around the stricken 27-year-old as they left him to die while continuing their own personal bid for glory.

Now, after footage of the incident emerged, their decision to leave him has caused an outcry among the mountaineering community.

Hassan, a father-of-three high-altitude porter from Pakistan who worked for Lela Peak Expedition, died after an avalanche on July 27 pushed him over a ledge while scaling the 28,300ft K2 mountain.

The footage shows people physically climbing over Hassan as he lies helpless in the deep snow. 

The video then pans over to show clouds several thousand feet below them, revealing just how high they were when the footage was taken.

The air is so thin at this elevation that all people seen in the video were wearing oxygen masks. 

It appears that just one person ended up helping him, an unknown rescuer who managed to keep him conscious for a while before he died of his injuries. There was no rescue operation to help the young man. 

Fellow climber Wilhelm Steindl, who also participated in the climb but had returned to the base camp earlier due to the dangerous conditions, told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that he was sickened by the inaction of the fellow climbers.

‘It was a very heated, competitive race to the top. What happened there is scandalous.

‘A living person is left behind so records can be set. It only took 3 or 4 people to save him. Had I seen it, I would have climbed up to help the poor man.’ 

Despite these strong claims, differing accounts of the tragedy have circulated, leading to uncertainty over exactly what took place all the way up K2. 

Lakpa Sherpa, a mountaineer who was on the climb and took the video, told MailOnline that the footage doesn’t capture what actually happened: 

‘Some of the climbers and sherpas tried to save his life although he passed away. 

‘The climbers have all spent a lot of money to do this climb and there is the value of time too for the climb. Hundreds of climbers tried to save him but they cannot give up their mission. 

‘The reality is they have tried to save the life and this is below the great serace bottle neck, where it’s impossible to cross without rope so it’s a very difficult situation. 

‘Many climbers and sherpas told him to go back as he had very poor equipment and was not well equipped and also there was very bad weather during the summit window but he did not listen and then he fell down. 

‘It was very difficult to bring the body down. They have to summit the mountain. There’s only a little chance for them.’ 

Bulgarian climber Silvia Azdreeva, who was on the trip when Hassan died, said in a Facebook post that climbing K2 is not for the faint-hearted: ‘On K2 there is no one to save you that fast, you’ll have to wait for days if something happens to you. 

‘This mountain is not for everyone. K2 has a very heavy character.’

Shockingly, Wilhelm Steindl claimed that a party was held shortly after Mr. Hassan died in celebration of Kristin Harila, a Norwegian woman who set a new world record after she climbed the 14 of the world’s highest peaks in just over 3 months.

‘I didn’t go, I was disgusted. Someone had just died up there,’ the furious climber said.

He revealed in a GoFundMe set up for Mr. Hassan’s family that he leaves behind three children and a wife, as well as an elderly grandmother. 

At time of publication, the page has already raised £63,000.

The newly-crowned world record holder Kristin Harila said of the tragedy: ‘My heart and thoughts and prayers go out to the family and loved ones of Hassan and I feel very sad about this whole situation.’

MailOnline has contacted Lela Peak Expedition for comment. 

K2 is considered to be the world’s most dangerous mountain as it has a fatality rate of around 19 per cent compared to just 6.5 per cent on Everest, according to estimates.

For every 20 people who summit Everest, only one summits K2 and there are inherently more risks.

Routes on K2 are not as defined or well laid out with the climb being much more technical with a combination of rock, ice and alpine climbing – and avalanches are also much more common.

The mountain gained notoriety as the ‘Savage Mountain’ after American mountaineer George Bell came down from the peak in 1953 where he nearly slipped to his death.

‘It’s a savage mountain that tries to kill you,’ he observed following his traitorous climb.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has called for supporters to protest and ‘stand up for their rights’ after he was sentenced to three years in jail for illegally selling state gifts he received while premier.

The 70-year-old cricketer-turned-politician was arrested after police descended on his home in Lahore – Pakistan’s second biggest city. He will now be taken to the capital, Islamabad, before being imprisoned in the central jail in Adyala, Rawalpindi.

‘I have just received the information that Imran Khan has been arrested,’ Attaullah Tarar, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, told reporters.

After he was taken away by police Saturday, a video statement Khan made before his arrest was posted to his Twitter account with him urging his supporters not to stay silent.

‘My fellow Pakistanis, they will have arrested me and I’ll be in jail by the time this message reaches you. I have just one request and appeal, that you are not to sit silently at home,’ he said. 

‘This is a war for justice, for your rights, for your freedom… chains don’t just fall off, they have to be broken. You must continue peaceful protest until you get your rights.’ 

Police have already been pictured making arrests as protests from Khan’s supporters began almost immediately after his arrest – just months after mass demonstrations took place when he was detained in May. 

Legal experts say guilty verdict reached by a district court could end Khan’s chances of participating in national elections that have to be held before early November.

Khan was not present for the hearing at the Islamabad High Court, and the judge ordered his immediate arrest and banned him from politics for five years. It’s the second time the popular opposition leader has been detained this year. 

‘Judge Humayun Dilawar announced that involvement in corrupt practices has been proven,’ Pakistan TV said. 

Khan is facing over 150 cases brought against him since being ousted in April last year – charges he says are politically motivated. Khan’s legal team said they would be filing an immediate appeal.

‘It’s important to mention there was no chance given to present witnesses, neither was time allotted to round up arguments,’ a member of the team said.

The sentence relates to an inquiry conducted by the election commission, which found Khan guilty of unlawfully selling state gifts during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022. 

Khan – who was ousted after a no-confidence vote in parliament in April 2022 – denies any wrongdoing.

The former Pakistan PM is accused of misusing his premiership to buy and sell gifts in state possession that were received during visits abroad and worth more than 140 million Pakistani rupees.

His dramatic arrest in May – where he was filmed being forcibly removed from court by security officers – sparked nationwide violent demonstrations from supporters of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in almost all of the country’s major cities. 

Hundreds of protesters were arrested after government and military property was attacked and at least eight people died as unrest gripped Pakistan. 

In the aftermath of his release following three days in custody, PTI has been targeted by a crackdown with thousands of arrests, reports of intimidation and muzzling of the press.

Among the hundreds of cases brought against him, several involve corruption, terrorism and inciting people to violence over the deadly protests.

His arrest followed months of political crisis and came hours after the powerful military rebuked the former international cricketer for alleging a senior officer had been involved in a plot to kill him, which saw an assassination attempt last year. 

Khan has long warned he would be arrested to prevent him participating in elections that are due to be held before the end of the year.

Parliament is likely to be dissolved after it completes its term in the next two weeks, with national elections to be held by mid-November or earlier.

Khan rose to power in 2018 on a wave of popular support, an anti-corruption manifesto, and the backing of the powerful military establishment.

When he was ousted in April last year, analysts said it was because he lost the backing of the top generals.

In his campaign for re-election, Khan has highlighted the power the top brass wield behind the scenes – a subject historically considered a red line in Pakistan.

While many analysts believe Khan came to power with the help of the military, the former cricketer has been one of the army’s most vocal critics. 

Khan is the seventh former prime minister to be arrested in Pakistan. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was arrested and hanged in 1979. The current prime minister’s brother, Nawaz Sharif, who also served as prime minister, was arrested several times on corruption allegations. 

County cricket’s 50-over competition, the Metro Bank Cup, got underway this week, boosted by the fact players surplus to requirements at any stage of the Hundred will be free to represent their counties.

It also features high-quality overseas players in the shape of India Test batters Cheteshwar Pujara and Prithvi Shaw (Sussex and Northants respectively), South Africa’s Simon Harmer at Essex and Shan Masood of Pakistan and Yorkshire.

Despite being branded a development tournament by the ECB when the Hundred launched in 2021, it has maintained healthy crowds as counties take the opportunity to use out-grounds, attracting a wider audience in the process.

There is a developmental nature to it, of course, given the 100 best English-qualified white-ball cricketers have a 100-ball focus this month, and that allows young cricketers to make their marks, as Joey Evison did with the bat for champions Kent and John Turner did with the ball for Hampshire last season.

It is unlikely that performances will impact England’s World Cup selection, but a strong Metro Bank Cup season would surely influence longer-term thinking. Indeed, Durham’s Ollie Robinson served notice of an ability to score big runs at a rapid rate for Kent in 2022 and could now be rewarded with a place on the white-ball tour of West Indies.

The two group winners progress directly into the semi-finals on August 29, while the second and third-placed teams play off in two ‘quarter-finals’ for the right to face them. The final is at Trent Bridge on September 16.

Here is how the 18 first-class counties are shaping up:

GROUP A

Essex

Captain: Tom Westley

Overseas players: Simon Harmer (SA), Beau Webster (Aus)

2022: Sixth in Group B

Multi-format star Harmer misses the first few matches, having been given recuperation time ahead of a Championship title push, and Alastair Cook sits it out. The giant Webster adds all-round skills to a young squad.

Hampshire

Captain: Nick Gubbins

Overseas players: None

2022: Semi-finals

Only Surrey have lost more players to the Hundred than Hampshire’s 10 and their overseas pair, Kyle Abbott and Mohammad Abbas, are Championship specialists — but they still opened up with a win over Middlesex.

Kent

Captain: Joe Denly

Overseas players: James Bazley (Aus)

2022: Winners

Hundreds from Evison and Ben Compton helped the holders begin the new campaign in style, recovering from four wickets down early to edge out Yorkshire. Queenslander Bazley bowls seam and hits long.

Lancashire

Captain: Keaton Jennings

Overseas player: Dane Vilas (SA) 2022: Runners-up

A club promoting its youth still has ambitions of repeating last year’s charge to the final given the quality of emerging players George Bell, Tom Aspinwall and Jack Morley and the experienced backbone of the batting.

Leicestershire

Captain: Lewis Hill

Overseas players: Peter Handscomb (Aus), Wiaan Mulder (SA)

2022: Quarter-finals

Seldom in recent years have Leicestershire entered a competition with genuine belief that they could win it, but with two excellent overseas players and only Rehan Ahmed and Callum Parkinson absent, there is reason for such confidence.

Middlesex

Captain: Mark Stoneman

Overseas players: Pieter Malan (SA)

2022: Fourth in Group A

Financial restrictions limit Middlesex’s overseas acquisitions but they retain the majority of their Championship squad for this competition and have high hopes for Joe Cracknell and Blake Cullen.

Nottinghamshire

Captain: Haseeb Hameed

Overseas players: Dane Paterson (SA)

2022: Quarter-finals

Expect Nottinghamshire’s attempts to improve on last eason’s play-off elimination to be based on the triple spin threat of Calvin Harrison, Liam Patterson-White and Matthew Montgomery, and a bevy of all-rounders including former Yorkshire player Tom Loten and Lyndon James.

Surrey

Captain: Rory Burns

Overseas players: None

2022: Seventh in Group A

Despite losing a dozen cricketers, Surrey still include recent England batters Burns, Dom Sibley and Ben Foakes, while Conor McKerr, Daniel Moriarty and Amar Virdi boast plenty of top-level wickets.

Yorkshire

Captain: Shan Masood

Overseas player: Shan Masood (Pak)

2022: Fifth in Group B

Matthew Revis marked the start of Yorkshire’s campaign with a hat-trick against Kent. He and George Hill have the chance to progress their careers by dominating these contests.

GROUP B

Derbyshire

Captain: Brooke Guest

Overseas Players: Haider Ali (Pak), Suranga Lakmal (SL)

2022: Seventh in Group B

The retention of Ali and signing of David Lloyd from Glamorgan gives ballast to the batting and they should be contenders despite losing their first match.

Durham

Captain: Alex Lees

Overseas players: David Bedingham (SA), Migael Pretorius (SA)

2022: Ninth in Group A

Promotion in four-day cricket remains the priority and an inexperienced unit was well beaten by Worcestershire this week — despite Liam Trevaskis’s hat-trick — extending last year’s theme.

Glamorgan

Captain: Kiran Carlson

Overseas player: Colin Ingram (SA)

2022: Fourth in Group B

David Harrison, the coach who led the Welsh club to glory in this competition two years ago, takes the reins again from Mark Alleyne. Expect another strong showing, after narrowly missing out on third spot last August.

Gloucestershire

Captain: Graeme van Buuren

Overseas players: Zafar Gohar (Pak), Harry Tector (Ire)

2022: Fifth in Group A

A maiden List A ton for Ollie Price (below) versus Derbyshire contributed to a perfect start on Tuesday, but the fact Gloucestershire signed Hector for just one match highlights the extent of their injury crisis.

Northamptonshire

Captain: Lewis McManus

Overseas players: Sam Whiteman (Aus), Prithvi Shaw (Ind)

2022: eighth in Group B

With just David Willey and Saif Zaib missing, there has been little disruption at Wantage Road, and with Shaw intent on putting a dismal IPL season behind him, expect improvement on 2022.

Somerset

Captain: Sean Dickson

Overseas players: Curtis Campher (Ire)

2022: Eighth in Group A

The signing of Campher is shrewd and these 50-over affairs give James Rew a chance to show he has extra gears not yet evident in his first-class batting, as Somerset seek a white-ball double under new captain Dickson.

Sussex

Captain: Cheteshwar Pujara

Overseas players: Cheteshwar Pujara (Ind)

2022: Semi-finals

Pujara, second top scorer in last year’s competition with 624 runs, also led the side brilliantly, and with minimal changes in personnel 12 months on, they look a good bet to be pushing for a trip to Trent Bridge again.

Warwickshire

Captain: Will Rhodes

Overseas players: None

2022: Sixth in Group A

Jake Lintott, a Hundred winner in 2021, and Ed Barnard provide some experience, but the fact the Bears added a trio of rookie players to their squad on the eve of the competition highlights their approach to it.

Worcestershire

Captain: Jake Libby

Overseas player: Azhar Ali (Pak)

2022: Ninth in Group B

Rob Jones joins on loan from Lancashire ahead of a permanent 2024 switch, bolstering a side who should be tussling for top spot rather than the wooden spoon this time around. Watch out for Kashif Ali’s explosive batting.

As officials race against time to save five people aboard the missing Titanic submersible, an immersive new video shows how deep it could be. 

The clip, created by Spanish animation company MetaBallStudios, gradually descends through a digital underwater scenescape. 

As it goes, the heights of multiple landmarks are depicted in the water, including the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. 

Eventually, the camera reaches 12,000ft (3,700 metres) down – the bottom of the North Atlantic, where the remains of the Titanic sit.

The Titan submersible, operated by US firm OceanGate, started its dive on Sunday morning but all contact with its mothership was lost shortly after.

One of Pakistan‘s richest men, Shahzada Dawood, is aboard the vessel alongside his son Suleman, British billionaire Hamish Harding, OceanGate chief executive Stockton Rush and French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet.

The five people have only around a day of oxygen left, according to authorities, as of Wednesday morning UK time. 

Authorities raised the alarm on Sunday when the vessel vanished less than two hours into its venture.

The sub had launched its £195,000-a-head ($248,094) tour from the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, at 2:30am EST (7:30am GMT) on Sunday.

It’s understood that Titan communicates with those on the surface by sending an alert to its mothership, the Polar Prince, every 15 minutes.

The five on board last ‘pinged’ the mothership at 10am EST (3pm GMT) on Sunday, while directly above their destination of the Titanic. 

This could indicate that they are now somewhere on the ocean floor, with the wreckage split in two halves at around 12,500ft (3,800m) below the surface.

To put the depth into context, MailOnline has created a graphic showing how this depth compares to famously tall structures, including London’s Big Ben, Willis Tower in Chicago and the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon, a natural geological formation in Arizona, is about 6,000 feet (1,828 metres) – less than half the depth of the Titanic’s wreckage.  

It reveals how landmarks that are famous for their height pale in comparison to this – with the Statue of Liberty at just 305ft (93m), the Eiffel Tower at 1,083ft (330m) and the Empire State Building at 1,250ft (381m).

Even the UAE’s Burj Khalifa – the world’s tallest building – looks tiny against the depths of the North Atlantic, at a height of 2,217ft (675m).

And the vast Grand Canyon is no different at 6,000ft (1,828m) – less than half the depth of the Titanic’s wreckage.

The OceanGate vessel has been described as a submarine, but in truth it’s actually a submersible.

A submarine is an independent cruiser with its own power supply and air renewal system, while a submersible needs to be supported by a nearby surface vessel or shore team. 

On average, submarines can venture to around a maximum of 1,476 feet (450 metres), according to Marine Insight, which is just over the height of Chicago’s Willis Tower.

But OceanGate’s Titan submersible is designed to reach depths nearly 800 per cent greater than this, at a maximum of 13,123 feet (4,000 metres).

While this beats the depth of the North Atlantic seabed, experts fear it may be too far for a US Navy sub to reach, with its capabilities limited to just 2,000 feet (609 metres).

As a result, remotely operated vehicles may be the only alternative to rescue them – reaching maximum depths of 20,000 feet (6,096 metres). 

David Gallo, who owns the salvage rights to the Titanic’s wreck site, told CNN: ‘One of the biggest things is where is it? Is it on the bottom, is it floating, is it mid-water? 

‘That is something that has not been determined yet… We will have to wait and see and hope for the best.

‘The water is very deep – two miles plus. It’s like a visit to another planet, it’s not what people think it is. It is a sunless, cold environment and high pressure.’ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The UK-based Pakistani businessman and his teenage son who are among the five people trapped on a submarine that went missing near the Titanic wreckage have been pictured today.

Shahzada Dawood, 48, a board member of the Prince’s Trust charity, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, were on board the 22ft craft taking paying tourists to view the wreck 12,500ft under water when they lost signal in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

Their family, including Shahzada’s wife Christine and daughter Alina, are waiting for news of the pair.

But former Royal Navy commander Ryan Ramsey, 53, today warned there is ‘no way’ of rescuing the crew, which includes British billionaire Hamish Harding, if the craft is still thousands of feet under the sea because the technology required ‘doesn’t exist’.

But the vessel could well be floating on the surface of the water, meaning it will be easier for rescue crews to locate the submarine before the air runs out.  

Ramsey, who served in the Navy’s submarine service for 23 years, told MailOnline that those on board – including French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet and OceanGate chief executive Stockton Rush – will now be facing dwindling oxygen levels, while another expert warned the crew members face the risk of hypothermia. 

‘There is no way of rescuing them,’ said the naval veteran, who commanded a Royal Navy nuclear submarine. ‘Most rescue systems can get only reach 500m (1,640ft) not 3,000m (9,000ft). 

‘The technology, as far as I’m aware, doesn’t exist to carry out a rescue operation that deep. If they are still in a position to be rescued, they’re running out of air and creating more carbon dioxide – that’s a killer.’

Rescue crews from the US and Canada are still trying to find the vessel, which is understood to have last ‘pinged’ whilst directly above the Titanic wreck, before the air onboard runs out. It is believed the submarine has enough oxygen to last under water until 12pm on Thursday UK time (7am EST).

Ramsey, from Oxford, said he feared that it was unlikely the vessel, if it has suffered a catastrophic failure, would ever be recovered. Indeed, the US Coast Guard today said its crews were searching an area roughly the size Connecticut – which is similar to that of Northern Ireland.

‘It’s probably imploded by now,’ he added. ‘The pressures at that depth are absolutely huge. If there’s a fault in any part of that submarine or any crack then quickly the pressure takes hold and crushes it.’

Asked what he thought when he heard about the crisis, he said: ‘It made my blood run cold. The people who decided to go down there are adventurers and they push the limits of what humans can do.

‘But if you [look] at the YouTube footage of that submarine, you could question the integrity of it. When I looked at it there was no way I would have done it and I have been under water most of my life.’

It comes as heartbreaking photographs emerged of Shahzada and Sulaiman smiling broadly with Christine. 

Further photos emerged today showing the craft they were on leaving the port in St. John’s in Canada. The submersible was seen being towed by the mothership MV Polar Prince out to sea to the wreckage site.

But hours after the final images were taken, the submarine descended to the dark depths of the Atlantic Ocean to view the wreck 12,500ft underwater before losing all communication with the Polar Prince – 350 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

The sub, owned and operated by OceanGate Expeditions, had launched at around 4am on Sunday and was taking the crew 12,500ft under water as part of its £195,000-a-head tour of the 1912 shipwreck. 

But the crew lost communication with the sub’s mothership MV Polar Prince an hour and 45 minutes into the two-hour descent and there is now a desperate search to find the vessel and those on board before the air runs out. 

And as the terrifying race against time began yesterday afternoon, rescuers admitted the submersible could have become stuck in the wreckage of the Titanic, which is 370 miles from Newfoundland in Canada but lies in US waters.

Submarine experts also fear the vessel is too deep for a manned rescue sub, such as the US Navy sub which is limited to 2,000ft, and that the only way of reaching it may be using a remote operated vehicle. These can reach a maximum depth of 20,000ft.

David Gallo, an oceanographer and senior adviser at RMS Titanic, said that if the submersible is still intact, the five onboard will be facing dwindling oxygen levels and fighting the cold and facing the risk of hypothermia.

‘One of the biggest things is where is it? Is it on the bottom, is it floating, is it mid-water? That is something that has not been determined yet… We will have to wait and see and hope for the best,’ Gallo added. 

He added that if the submersible is located, the rescue crew would find it difficult to rescue those on board the vessel. 

‘The water is very deep – two miles plus. It’s like a visit to another planet, it’s not what people think it is. It is a sunless, cold environment and high pressure,’ he said.  

The desperate families of those on board – Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman, Mr Harding, Mr Nargeolet and Mr Rush – are now desperately waiting for news of their loved ones.

‘We are very grateful for the concern being shown by our colleagues and friends and would like to request everyone to pray for their safety,’ the Dawood family said in a statement. 

The Dawood family are among the richest in Pakistan, but have strong links to the UK and Shahzada lives in a six-bedroom £3.3million house in Surbiton, Surrey, with wife Christine, who works as a life coach, son Sulaiman and daughter Alina.

Their neighbour Ellen Maby, 48, told MailOnline of her shock when she saw the news that Shahzada and Sulaiman were on the submarine.

She said: ‘They are such a lovely, lovely couple and when I saw it on the TV I was shocked. You couldn’t wish for lovelier neighbours.

‘The children are so sweet and polite and Christine is so kind, she was wonderful to me when my mother was ill. They’ve lived her about ten years and we see them every now and then but to be honest they are away a lot as they are a very transient family.

‘We are just hoping and praying that they come out of this alive. It’s so awful to think about.’

Barnaby Sandow, Head of School at the ACS International School Cobham said:’The ACS International School Cobham community is deeply concerned by the news that recent graduate, Suleman Dawood, and his father are on board the submersible which has gone missing during a dive to the Titanic’s wreck. Our thoughts are with the family, friends and loved ones, during this difficult time.’ 

Shahzada is the Vice Chairman of Engro Corporation, which makes fertilisers, food and energy, as well as the Dawood Hercules Corporation, which makes chemicals. Shahzada’s father Hussain, 79, is chairman of both companies.

Shahzada is also a member of the Global Advisory Board for King Charles’ Charity, Prince’s Trust. He is also in the Founder’s Circle of the British Asian Trust.

The father-of-two is also on the board of trustees for the California-based SETI Institute that searches for extraterrestrial intelligence. 

He was born in Pakistan but moved to the UK to study law at the University of Buckingham. He went on to study for Master’s in textile marketing in 2000 at Philadelphia University.

Shahzada had decided to take his son Sulaiman on the ‘Titan’ – the name of the Titanic submersible – for the five-day trip with three others when disaster struck and they lost contact with the surface after appearing to close in on their destination.

It’s understood that Titan communicates by sending a ping to the Polar Prince every 15 minutes – the last of which was received while the submersible floated above the Titanic wreckage at about 10am EST yesterday (3pm UK time).

It was at that moment that chaos ensued. A distress call was sent to the US Coast Guard at 9pm, whose Boston branch is leading an operation to carry out what would be the deepest undersea rescue mission ever. 

British businessman Mr Harding, who lives in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, was one of the mission specialists on board the vessel, according to Action Aviation, a company for which Mr Harding serves as chairman.

Mr Harding is a billionaire adventurer who holds three Guinness World Records, including the longest duration at full ocean depth by a crewed vessel. In March 2021, he and ocean explorer Victor Vescovo dived to the lowest depth of the Mariana Trench. In June 2022, he went into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.

Action Aviation’s managing director Mark Butler said: ‘There is still plenty of time to facilitate a rescue mission, there is equipment on board for survival in this event. We’re all hoping and praying he comes back safe and sound.’

But with less than 52 hours of air left between five crew members until Thursday, Rear Admiral John W. Mauger said that the US Coast Guard is working ‘as hard as possible’ to find it while ‘lives are at risk’.

But former Coast Guardsman John Mixson told Fox News it was an ‘extremely serious and dire situation’, adding: ‘It’s hard to say whenever you just lose total communications in a situation like that what actually happened until you find the vessel.

‘This isn’t a common occurrence at all. Obviously, something very rapid and very tragic took place.’

But writer Mike Reiss, who took the Titanic submersible trip last year, said he feels ‘optimistic’ for the missing OceanGate craft. Mr Reiss told BBC Breakfast communication was also lost during his dive down to the Titanic. 

Mr Reiss said: ‘I’m optimistic just because I know the logistics of it. And I know really again, how vast the ocean is, and how very tiny the craft is.

He added: ‘So the idea is, if it’s down at the bottom, I don’t know how anyone’s going to be able to access it, much less bring it back up.

‘There is a hope that it’s at, or near, the surface. I did three separate dives. I did one dive to the Titanic and two more off the coast of New York.

‘Every time they lost communication and again, this is not a shoddy ship or anything.’

An expert on the history of the Titanic said he is ‘very worried about the souls’ on board the missing submersible.

Tim Maltin, an author, historian and TV presenter said the tourists were in a difficult situation.

Mr Maltin said on BBC Breakfast: ‘If it’s near the Titanic it would be easier to find, but the problem is of course you can’t do a ship-to-ship transfer even, the pressure is absolutely intense.

‘It’s nearly two miles miles down, it’s pitch black. So I also am very, very worried about the souls who are on board.’

He added: ‘I think they’re quite brave people who have been down there, but equally they know the risks but no one expects it to go wrong on your dive.’

OceanGate says on its website that customers do not require any previous diving experience but there are ‘a few physical requirements like being able to board small boats in active seas’, said it was receiving help from government agencies and deep-sea companies.

The eight-day trip includes a two hour dive to the Titanic wreck and the same on the way up. It can be around eight to ten hours in total.

David Concannon, an OceanGate adviser who had planned to be on the expedition, said officials are working to get a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that can reach a depth of 20,000ft to the site as soon as possible.  

Meanwhile, C-130 and P-8 aircraft from the US and Canada are being used to help search the remote area of the ocean, 900 miles east of Cape Cod and 370 miles southeast of southernmost Newfoundland. 

Commercial ships helping the rescue mission also have access to sonar buoys which are capable of listening to a depth of 13,000ft, the Coast Guard said.

Admiral Mauger conceded the craft may have become stuck in the Titanic’s wreckage and said the rescue mission was ‘very complicated’.

‘We’re working as hard as possible, bringing all assets to bear to try and find the submersible,’ he added.

‘We were notified yesterday [Sunday] afternoon and we began immediately to mobilise assets to search both the surface of the water, search from the air, and to detect any vessels under the water as well. We’ve had a comprehensive search to find these people.’

Admiral Mauger said the coast guard did not have the capabilities to reach it, if that was the case, telling Fox News: ‘We don’t have equipment onsite that can do a survey of the bottom… there is a lot of debris [at this wreckage] so locating will be difficult.

‘We don’t have the capabilities at this time. Right now, we’re focused on trying to locate it.’

Former Rear Admiral Chris Parry, during a separate appearance on Sky News, echoed Mauger’s concerns. 

‘It’s very worrying. It could have become entangled in the wreckage of Titanic, we don’t know yet,’ said Parry.

‘The wreck site is a long way from anywhere. The only hope one has is that the mothership will have a standby craft that can investigate immediately what is going on.’ 

OceanGate, which was founded in 2009, had chartered the MV Polar Prince, to take them to the dive site. 

Before the expedition, Mr Harding had messaged his friend, retired Nasa astronaut Colonel Terry Virts, to say: ‘Hey, we’re headed out tomorrow, it looks good, the weather’s been bad so they’ve been waiting for this.’ 

As rescue teams continued the search for the submersible, Colonel Virts added that he and his friend ‘don’t really talk about risks’.

The Titan subs have no way of directing themselves under water. Instead, they rely on text messages from the mothership, instructing them where to go. 

The missing tourist sub is classified as a submersible, not a submarine, because it does not function as an autonomous craft, and relies instead on a support platform. 

Last year, a CBS journalist was on the mothership when it went off course. It was missing for two-and-a-half hours before it returned but none of those onboard were harmed. 

Tickets for the trip cost £195,000 for an eight-day excursion during which groups pair off into smaller pods to dive in the submersibles for up to ten hours. 

OceanGate advertises it as ‘a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’ to ‘safely dive the Titanic wreckage site’ in a ‘12,500-foot journey to the bottom of the sea’.

Tourists are told that ‘if money isn’t an object and you don’t mind close quarters’, then they can ‘step outside of everyday life and discover something truly extraordinary’.

OceanGate confirmed its sub was missing, writing: ‘We are exploring and mobilising all options to bring the crew back safely.

‘Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families. We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.’ 

The sub uses Elon Musk’s Starlink to communicate with its mothership because it is so far out to sea. 

Before the trip, London-born Harding excitedly posted on social media about being there. Harding said it a ‘window’ had opened up that would allow the group to dive. 

‘A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow. We started steaming from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada yesterday and are planning to start dive operations around 4am tomorrow morning,’ he wrote. 

His company, Action Aviation, posted on Sunday at 4am confirming he was ‘diving’.

According to OceanGate’s website, one expedition is ongoing and two more have been planned for June next year. 

The Titanic sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, on its maiden voyage from England to New York after hitting an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 people. The wreckage was found in 1985, broken into two main sections. 

By the early 2000s, scientists were warning that the numbers of tourists visiting the wreck were potentially damaging it – warning that holes had opened up in the decks, walls had crumpled, and that rust was spreading all over the ship. They also noted it was a graveyard, and deserved respect.