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| Tanzanian police carry bodies from the sea in Zanzibar |
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| Relatives flock to the shore as they wait for news of survivors |
At least 192 people have reportedly been killed after a ferry carrying 600 passengers sank off the Tanzanian coast. The boat, MV Spice Islanders, sank in an area of deep sea after leaving the mainland port of Dar es Salaam.
It was travelling between Zanzibar's main island, Unguja, and Pemba, both popular tourist destinations.
Hundreds of passengers are still missing, many of them children.
Hundreds of passengers are still missing, many of them children.
Survivor Yahya Hussein, 15, said: "I realised something strange on the movement of the ship. It was like zigzag or dizziness.
"After I noticed that I jumped to the rear side of ship and few minutes later the ship went lopsided."
He said there were many children on the ship.
Another survivor Mwita Massoud said that after the ship began to list, water rushed through the main cabin and stopped the engines.
Many potential passengers had refused to board because it was so overloaded.
Mohammed Aboud Mohammed, the minister for state in the vice president's office, said about 230 people had been rescued so far.
"We appeal for calm to the public," he added.
"The government is doing its best it can to handle the situation. There is no need to panic."
Thousands of residents mobbed the docks of Stone Town on Zanzibar waiting for news, with many of those present expressing anger that the ship had been allowed to leave the port so overloaded.
Some survivors have been brought to shore in fishing vessels, while others have clung to debris in the sea, waiting for assistance.
Authorities are struggling to cope and have asked for foreign help.
In 2006, another ship capsized at the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, claiming hundreds of lives.
Source: Sky News
6 comments:
May their souls rest in peace...
thats sad, i hope a lot more people have been rescued.
AFRICA, may God save us from this wicked African mentality of managing complications rather than preventing them. For goodness sake were was the security agents and the officials when this ferry take up?
U know us Africans the way we cram into a Ferry that probs meant for a hundred people..what a shame such a beautiful beach/river would be a passage of death!!
its so sad that we do not have infrastructure to save people's lives in such disasters in Tanzania. In addition to that the ship was way overloaded causing it to sink. This is very sad, jus found out there was a family of 11 people onboard going to a wedding, all of them perished. We can only hope they rest in peace and God will heal their families' wounds.
Dear Lord! May the souls of the departed rest-in-peace, and to think Tanzania (Zanzibar & Mt Kilimanjaro) was next up on my holiday list, it is well
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