21 dead, 21 missing after ferry capsizes in Myanmar
A survivor from the ferry is carried after she arrived at Kyaukphyu jetty in western Myanmar.
Naypyidaw, Myanmar (CNN)Twenty-one
people are dead and 21 missing after a ferry capsized Friday night in
Myanmar, the southeast Asian nation's government said.
Myanmar's
Ministry of Information said in a statement that the ship capsized as
it sailed, in bad weather conditions, around the coastal city of Sittwe.
That's when a large wave crashed into the ferry, causing it capsize
near Myaybone and Myaukkyine islands.
While
the death toll could certainly go higher, the good news is authorities
have managed to rescue at least 167 people, according to the information
ministry for Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.
Pictures
from the government showed rescue workers helping people -- some of
them women and children -- off a boat onto the land, including one
carried off with a bandaged head and leg.
Sittwe
is the capital of Rakhine state and sits on the Bay of Bengal, about 55
miles (90 kilometers) from the Bangladesh border. This weekend's
weather forecast for the city calls for some clouds giving way to clear
skies, with high daytime temperatures expected to be in the 30s Celsius
(80s to 90s Fahrenheit).
Such fatal ferry disasters are nothing new to the region.
Last month, at least 68 people died when a packed double-decker ferry sank
while on the Padma River north of neighboring Bangladesh's capital,
Dhaka, officials said. A cargo vessel hit the ferry, causing it to
overturn and trapping passengers on its lower deck.
Forty-five people died in an accident on the same river in August.
In May 2013, several boats carrying as many as 150 people were thought to have capsized near Myanmar's western coast ahead of a storm approaching the area.
Those
boats were carrying Rohingya, members of Myanmar's long-suffering
Muslim minority, a Thailand-based U.N. official Kirsten Mildren said at
the time.
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