The Hindu : Ferry toll may run into hundreds

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 29, 2002

International

International

Ferry toll may run into hundreds

DAKAR (Senegal) Sept. 28. Hundreds of people were feared dead after a crowded Senegalese ferry capsized in a fierce storm off the coast of Gambia. Rescue officials in Dakar said 104 people from the 796 listed on board the ferry had been saved, but hopes of finding more people alive were increasingly slim.

``Rescue operations continue but we expect a difficult situation for the victims,'' one rescue official in Dakar said. He said 41 bodies had been recovered so far, including those of 22 women and four children. The Le Diola — designed to carry 550 — capsized at 11 p.m. local time on Thursday, battered by wind and rain. Throughout Friday night, five fishing trawlers searched the choppy seas for survivors. The Senegalese army, which was operating the ferry, said rescue operations would continue. According to the army, three boats are being used in the rescue effort as well as a French army helicopter. ``All of us 27 were sitting by the side of the vessel,'' said Mariama Diouf, a 39-year-old Senegalese woman who was among a group of survivors brought aboard a fishing trawler to Gambia, a tiny country that almost divides Senegal in two.

There were at least a couple of dozen Europeans on board Le Diola, whose passengers were mostly from Senegal and Guinea Bissau. ``I survived, but I saw The ferry was on its way from the southern city of Ziguinchor in Casamance province to Senegal's capital, Dakar. ``The boat overturned in less than five minutes,'' said one of the passengers.

Reuters

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