Sixty-one bodies recovered in Haitian boat sinking
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| Published on Friday, May 11, 2007 |
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP): Search teams have recovered 61 bodies from the sea after a boat carrying Haitians heading to the United States sank near the Turks and Caicos islands, a Haitian official said.
Authorities had earlier reported a total of 54 bodies recovered from the accident.
"Sixty-one bodies have been recovered, of which 20 are completely decomposed," Jeanne Bernard, director of Haiti's National Organization of Migration, told AFP by telephone from the area.
The boat was carrying an estimated 150 people when it capsized early Friday about 800 meters (half a mile) off Providenciales, one of the Turks and Caicos islands. The US Coast Guard said the vessel capsized as it was being towed ashore.
Efforts to repatriate 78 survivors were under way, Bernard said, and the bodies of 41 victims have been identified and will be returned to Haiti after autopsies are carried out, she said.
The circumstances of the accident remained unclear and an investigation was under way, assisted by British experts, Bernard said. | | | | Reads : 236 | | | |
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