Chinese Ferry Sinks in Sichuan, 140 Missing

A boat carrying at least 200 passengers sank in Hejiang County, Southwest China's Sichuan Province Thursday morning, killing at least 13 passengers and another 140 are still missing.

Rescuers have saved 51 passengers from the river, local sources said.

As a country fair was to be held yesterday in Hejiang, which is on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, many locals took the ferry named Liziba in Baimi Township at 6:30am and headed for Rongshan Town.

The boat, owned by a farmer named Lian Yunqing, was supposed to hold 101 passengers at most. But witnnesses said that no less than 200 people squeezed on board Thursday morning.

The exact number is yet to be verified as some passengers, who were relatives and friends of the boat owner, might not have bought tickets, said Teng Fucai, deputy director of the Safety Office of the Department of Labour in Sichuan Province.

At about 7:30am, the overburdened boat struck a reef in thick fog and sank in the Yangtze River.

``Fog was another major cause for the sinking,'' said Teng in a telephone interview with China Daily.

On Thursday morning, a heavy fog engulfed the section of the Yangtze in Hejiang.

Soon after the tragedy took place, rescuers from Hejiang, Luzhou (a city about 50 kilometres from Hejiang) and downstream Chongqing Municipality rushed to the scene.

Representing the Sichuan provincial government, vice-governor Wang Jinxiang and some other leading officials arrived in Hejiang yesterday afternoon, which was a five-hour bus ride from this provincial capital of Chengdu. Wang is in charge of the rescue efforts, said sources from the Safety Office of the Department of Labour.

As the currents were turbulent in the Yangtze, the boat was washed away to a spot two or three kilometres away from the site of the tragedy.

Many rescue workers were deployed along the river to look for survivors, said an official from the Hejiang CountyGovernmentwho refused to be identified.

But until 10:20pm Thursday night, only 51 passengers were saved.

So far, 19 ships and hundreds of rescue workers are continuing search along the river for survivors and bodies.





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