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The shuttle fell to pieces 16 minutes before it was due to land

England have

The US space shuttle Columbia has broken up as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere killing all seven astronauts on board.

This is the first time there has been an accident on landing in the 42 years of space flight.

President George Bush told a nation in shock: "The Columbia is lost. There are no survivors."

Six of the seven astronauts were US citizens. They were Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, and female astronauts Laurel Clark and Indian-born Kalpana Chawla.

The seventh - fighter pilot Colonel Ilan Ramon - was Israel's first astronaut and was carrying with him a miniature Torah scroll of a Holocaust survivor.

Columbia disintegrated just 16 minutes before it was due to land at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

At 0900 local time (1400 GMT) Mission Control lost all data and contact with the crew.

The US space agency Nasa then sent search teams to the Dallas-Fort Worth area amid reports of "a big bang" and TV pictures showing smoke and fireballs in the sky.

In an emotional announcement, Nasa's administrator Sean O'Keefe, said: "This is indeed a tragic day for the Nasa family, for the families of the astronauts and likewise, tragic for the nation."

Flags at the Kennedy Space Center have been lowered to half-mast.

Debris from the shuttle is scattered across eastern Texas and western Louisiana and has crashed into car parks, forests, backyards, a reservoir, a rooftop and a dentist's office.

Nasa has temporarily suspended shuttle flights. Shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore told a news conference in Houston, Texas, "We will not fly again until we have this understood. Somewhere along the line we missed something."

The finger of blame points to a piece ofinsulating foamfrom an external fuel tank that hit the shuttle's left wing as it took off 16 days ago.

Some experts say this could have damaged tiles that protect the craft from intense heat on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

But the lead flight director in mission control, Leroy Cain, assured journalists engineers had concluded any damage to the spacecraft was considered minor.

The shuttle was the world's first reusable space vehicle and Columbia was the oldest of a fleet of four and flew her maiden voyage in April 1981.

Her sister ship Challenger exploded soon after take-off 17 years ago killing six astronauts and schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.

Sea defences could not cope with the force of the waves

Gale force northerly winds lashed the coastline and broke through flood defences from Yorkshire down to Kent throughout the night.

Swelling tides and high winds mixed to form a fatal combination which claimed dozens of lives and flooded thousands of homes on low-lying land all along the east coast.

Many people were forced to spend the night on their rooftops waiting to be rescued by over-stretched emergency services.

The storm began on the west coast of Ireland yesterday morning, passed over Orkney and thenfunnelleddown the North Sea, driving a deadly mountain of water before it.

The Princess Victoria ferry, travelling from Scotland to Ireland, was forced to abandon ship in the Irish Sea after it was caught in the heavy storms. The death toll reached 130.

Warnings of "rather high tides" issued by the Dutch authorities did not reach Britain and it is known many of people in both Holland and Belgium also lost their lives.

The eye of the storm hit eastern Scotland at approximately midday yesterday as Dunstable Met Office warned of "exceptionally strong winds".

The first fatalities on land were reported at approximately 1700 hrs yesterday after 20ft (6m) waves crashed through flood defences in Lincolnshire. More than 40 people are feared drowned.

Throughout the night the high winds travelled down the east coast ripping through sea walls and claiming dozens of lives.

Counties worst affected were Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Kent.

In Canvey Island, Essex, the entire 13,000-strong population was moved to safety as the bad weather took hold. Essex police said they had recovered 30 bodies during the night.

Eye-witnesses up and down the country said water was gushing through streets and thousands of homes were flooded.

insulating foam: 絕緣泡沫膠

funnel: move or pour through a funnel（漏斗）