Twenty-six people were killed after a small boat capsized on a lake near Manila, the capital of the Philippines, according to a new report on Friday from the coast guard, which is continuing its search for the missing.
The wooden outrigger boat was carrying about 70 people on its usual crossing from Binangonan town to Talim Island in the middle of Laguna Lake near Manila early Thursday afternoon when the accident happened.
“People panicked after a sudden gust of wind. They rushed to the left side of the boat, which capsized,” Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Armando Balilo told the radio.
The maximum capacity of the boat was 42 people.
People on the shore watched in horror as rescuers searched for victims in the murky water.
“Survivors begged us to rescue those trapped under the boat,” Monica de la Cruz, a resident who observed the efforts of rescue teams off the town of Binangonan, told AFP. “They were screaming and some were hurt,” she added.
“The boat sank before our eyes as it was returning to the island,” said Frederic Sison, a resident of Binangonan, who was at the port of Kalinawan at the time of the tragedy.
Video of the rescue operations shared by the Coastguard showed a man standing on the boat tipping over and shouting “there are so many people here”.
On the video, a young boatman says he saved four people, including a disabled person and a girl.
A previous report reported twenty-three dead and six missing. Forty people were saved.
As night fell on Thursday, rescuers righted the boat and dragged it close to shore, where its yellow hull lay in shallow water. The coffins of the victims were loaded onto boats to transport them to funeral ceremonies.
The Coast Guard and police are investigating the cause of the crash, which happened hours after Typhoon Doksuri swept through the northern Philippines.
Coast Guard spokesman Rear Admiral Armando Balilo told state television on Friday that they were now conducting a “search and recovery” operation for casualties.
“We have deployed divers to check the bottom (of the boat) in case people are stuck there,” he said.
“The captain said there were only 22 passengers, but later admitted during coast guard questioning that he let many more passengers on board,” he said. He specifies.
The ship had “permission to sail”, said the rear admiral the day before.
Earlier this week, boats were ordered to dock in Luzon and the central islands due to gale warnings as the typhoon intensified the southwest monsoon.
The boat is an essential means of transport in the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands, and accidents are frequent, especially on the small wooden boats commuting from one island to another. Every year, dozens of people die in accidents at sea.
28/07/2023 13:09:29 – Manila (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
