OTTAWA: President de Gaulle is returning to France late today [July 26] from Montreal, cancelling the Ottawa portion of his scheduled visit, a Canadian Government source said today.

The source said the Government so far had no official reason from the General’s party, except that an “operational decision” had been made and plans were being set up for the President’s departure from Montreal.

Police, meanwhile, denied today that a shot was fired at President de Gaulle on Monday while he was speaking to a crowd from the Montreal City Hall balcony.

A Police captain told [agencies] that a shot was fired at a window in City Hall between midnight and 4 a.m. local time on Tuesday morning, but that President de Gaulle was nowhere near the area at the time.

A Montreal newspaper said that a rifleman had shot at the President while he was speaking from the City Hall balcony. It said the bullet had missed and lodged in an office wall.

[Meanwhile, as reported by our correspondent in Karachi,] deaths due to rains and the floods they brought in the city totalled 19, according to the figures given by the Deputy Commissioner, Karachi, yesterday [July 26] evening.

A total of 32,000 persons were rendered homeless by the calamity, the Deputy Commissioner said in a preliminary report.

It said that 10,000 persons were affected in the Civil Lines area; 10,000 more in Harbour area and the same number in Nazimabad area.

The report said that 3,000 persons were left shelterless after the rains in New Town and 2,000 in Old Town localities. About 500 persons were reported to be affected in Cantonment area.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2017