MANILA, Philippines: A small boat capsized in a lake near the Philippine capital Manila on Thursday, killing 23 people on board and leaving six others missing, said the rescuers.
“What happened was they panicked after a sudden gust of wind. They ran to the left side and the boat capsized,” Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Rear Admiral Armando Balilo said in a radio interview as rescuers searched Laguna lake, 37 kilometres southeast of Manila, according to initial reports.
A rescue official in the municipality said that the small passenger boat was making its routine run from the town of Binangonan to the island of Talim in the middle of the lake, Kenneth Cirados. He said that so far the rescuers retrieved 23 dead bodies from the water and there were 40 survivors. Cirados said that hours after the unfortunate accident, rescuers were still scouring the lake for the six people still missing.
The Philippines, an archipelago of over 7,000 islands, has a poor maritime safety record, with many dying in mishaps at sea each year, usually aboard wooden-hulled outriggers used for fishing or to move people from one small island to another.—AFP
