Wedding boat accident in Myanmar leaves 30 people dead

A boat carrying guests returning from a wedding in Myanmar capsized in the river, leaving at least 30 people dead.

The boat called ‘Silver Star’ in Burmese sank in a river near Pathein, which is a port city west of Yangon.

The accident took place in Western Myanmar on Friday evening when around 60 people were returning from a wedding from another village.

The boat hit another vessel in the darkness and immediately capsized. Rescue workers took out 21 bodies from the river on Saturday and then on Sunday nine more bodies were found. It is unlikely that more bodies will be found since only nine people had been reported missing before the bodies were found on Sunday.

“We got nine dead bodies, three men and six women, today,” a police officer at Pathein police station told AFP, asking not to be named.

On Saturday, local media showed heart-breaking pictures of rescue workers lining up bodies on the shores of the river.

Boat accidents are very common in Myanmar where there is a rudimentary transport system and weakly-enforced safety regulations. In most of these accidents, people lose their lives but little is done to ensure better safety in the future.

Another reason for these accidents is that boats carrying people along the coastline and rivers are often dangerously overcrowded and death tolls from accidents can have very high numbers. It can also take several days to retrieve all bodies since the country does not have enough resources to have advanced machinery and trained swimmers to retrieve bodies.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=54704

Posted by fatimaarshad on Apr 10 2017. Filed under Latest News, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.