By NAW NOREEN
Published: 7 October 2010
At least 19 people, including children as young as five, have been killed after a ferry boat flipped as it navigated a creek in Burma’s southern Irrawaddy delta.
The majority of the 70 people on board were students and teachers from schools in Irrawaddy division’s Saluseik and Padaukgon villages, close to Labutta township. They had been travelling to an inter-village football tournament in Michaungai along one of the many waterways used for transport in the delta.
Reports of the number of those killed however vary: AFP quoted Burmese officials yesterday as saying that 13 had died, while the China-based People’s Daily claimed that at least two dozen were killed.
A rescue worker said the boat came under heavy rain on the way to Michaungai, and flipped when it was struck by a wave at around 10am yesterday.
“The boat flipped at a confluence of creeks – these are small, narrow creeks connecting villages,” he said, speaking to DVB on condition of anonymity. He said that most of the bodies were of children aged between five and 15.
Around 20 people were saved by nearby fishermen and rescue teams made up of local authorities and NGOs operating in the region, he added. Some 20 people are still missing.
The boat was reportedly overloaded with passengers and lost balance. Locals in Labutta say that most of the younger victims died when they became trapped underneath the boat after it had flipped.
Labutta, where some 80,000 people died in May 2008 following cyclone Nargis, had been experiencing heavy rain and strong winds for about four days prior to the accident. The weather had reportedly caused a number of strong currents and waves in the surrounding creeks and rivers.
A view of the , in which the boat sank, killing at least nineteen people.

Nineteen people were killed and three are unaccounted for after an overloaded  sank in a river in a flooded region of Burma. Many young children, travelling to an inter-village football tournament in Michaungai, were killed when the boat sank. During the rescue efforts, bodies of children aged between five and fifteen were recovered from the water, along with the bodies of two teachers and two local villagers. Authorities are continuing to search for three people who are still missing after the disaster.

There were 79 people aboard the boat when it sank in the , according to an unnamed official. A rescue worker suggested that there had been heavy rain around 10 a.m., when the ferry struck a strong wave and sank. “The boat flipped at a confluence of creeks—these are small, narrow creeks connecting villages," he said. Locals suggested that the boat, which was reportedly overloaded, flipped and lost balance, trapping young children underneath.

The accident took place as strong winds and heavy rain battered the area, causing large waves and strong currents in waterways. Reports indicate that many residents of the vast region rely heavily on poorly-maintained river ferries for cheap transportation, since many areas are inaccessible by road. 138,000 people were killed and thousands more were left homeless when when  devastated the region in May 2008. 



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