{"id":33779,"date":"2017-04-08T12:14:17","date_gmt":"2017-04-08T12:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/myanmar-ferry-capsizes-20-dead-over-a-dozen\/"},"modified":"2017-04-08T12:14:15","modified_gmt":"2017-04-08T12:14:15","slug":"myanmar-ferry-capsizes-20-dead-over-a-dozen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/myanmar-ferry-capsizes-20-dead-over-a-dozen\/","title":{"rendered":"Myanmar ferry capsizes; 20 dead, over a dozen missing"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Some 60 passengers on the ferry were returning from a wedding when it collided with another boat in the Irrawaddy Delta.}<\/p>\n

At least 20 people were killed when a boat carrying scores of wedding guests capsized in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta, officials said, with more feared drowned as rescue workers renewed their search in daylight.<\/p>\n

Most of the dead were women, according officials, who said the boat sank on Friday evening when it collided with a river barge in Pathein, a port city west of the commercial capital Yangon.<\/p>\n

“Altogether 16 women and four men were killed in the boat accident,” regional MP Aung Thu Htwe told AFP on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

“We estimate nine people are still missing,” he said, adding that some 30 people had been rescued alive the night before.<\/p>\n

The boat was believed to be carrying between 60 and 80 people when it sank, according to state media and a local police officer.<\/p>\n

“They were crossing to the other side of the river after attending a wedding in Pathein. Most of them were relatives from the same village,” said the police officer, who requested anonymity.<\/p>\n

Both boats were unlit when they collided in the middle of the river, he added.<\/p>\n

Local authorities and red cross workers resumed the search operation this morning, the police officer said.<\/p>\n

“We will do search and rescue for the whole day,” he told AFP.<\/p>\n

Fatal boat accidents are common in Myanmar, where many people living along its flood-prone rivers rely on often overcrowded ferries for transport.<\/p>\n

In October, 73 people, including many teachers and students, died when their packed vessel capsized in central Myanmar on the Chindwin River.<\/p>\n

Earlier that year in April at least 21 people, including nine children, died after their boat sank off the coast of Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine.<\/p>\n

Around 60 people died the year before, in March 2015, when their ferry went down in the same treacherous waters off the Rakhine coast.<\/p>\n

\"Photos<\/figure>\n

Source:Al Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Some 60 passengers on the ferry were returning from a wedding when it collided with another boat in the Irrawaddy Delta.} At least 20 people were killed when a boat carrying scores of wedding guests capsized in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta, officials said, with more feared drowned as rescue workers renewed their search in daylight. Most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-33779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33779\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33779"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=33779"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=33779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}