Relatives bury ferry victims, ask safety questions.
- 13 years ago
Families in Tanzania bury the victims of a ferry crash that claimed nearly 200 lives.
The overloaded MV Spice Islander capsized off the coast Saturday.
The ferry was at least 200 passengers over its 600-person capacity and was tilting sideways as it left Zanzibar's port, but passengers were prevented from getting off.
(SOUNDBITE) (Kiswahili) ALI ULEDI, ZANZIBAR RESIDENT SAYING:
"I think the blame lies on the operators of the vessel, these things have tonnage limits. We know the vessel was overloaded from Tanzania to Zanzibar. The operators must explain why they exceeded the cargo limit of the vessel."
Residents gathered on the beach to wait for news of the missing.
Police had found 192 bodies as of Saturday night, in addition to 606 survivors - some of whom clung to floating cargo for hours.
(SOUNDBITE) (Kiswahili) RELATIVE OF MISSING PASSENGERS, YAZID AMOUR, SAYING:
"We have lost eight relatives but my child survived, the total number of missing relatives is eight and we haven't got any bodies and I have been here the whole night."
Rescuers say it is unlikely they will find more survivors, but are still searching for bodies.
Lindsey Parietti, Reuters
The overloaded MV Spice Islander capsized off the coast Saturday.
The ferry was at least 200 passengers over its 600-person capacity and was tilting sideways as it left Zanzibar's port, but passengers were prevented from getting off.
(SOUNDBITE) (Kiswahili) ALI ULEDI, ZANZIBAR RESIDENT SAYING:
"I think the blame lies on the operators of the vessel, these things have tonnage limits. We know the vessel was overloaded from Tanzania to Zanzibar. The operators must explain why they exceeded the cargo limit of the vessel."
Residents gathered on the beach to wait for news of the missing.
Police had found 192 bodies as of Saturday night, in addition to 606 survivors - some of whom clung to floating cargo for hours.
(SOUNDBITE) (Kiswahili) RELATIVE OF MISSING PASSENGERS, YAZID AMOUR, SAYING:
"We have lost eight relatives but my child survived, the total number of missing relatives is eight and we haven't got any bodies and I have been here the whole night."
Rescuers say it is unlikely they will find more survivors, but are still searching for bodies.
Lindsey Parietti, Reuters