11 Killed In China’s River Crash, Several Missing

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

BEIJING (Worthy News) – Rescue teams salvaged a ferry that was hit by an oil spill cleaning vessel on a river in southern China, killing 11 people, but at least five people remained missing Saturday, officials said.

News emerged overnight that 19 people fell overboard during the crash on the Yuanshui River in Hunan province on Tuesday morning, but only three were rescued the same day.

The accident occurred where the river is, on average, more than 60 meters (200 feet) deep and 500 meters (1,600 feet) wide.

State media said rescue teams salvaged the ferry on Friday night and continued the search.

One rescued person reportedly escaped the ferry by breaking a window with his foot. Video footage showed the much larger oil spill-cleaning vessel hitting the ferry from behind in calm water.

The crash shocked the local community, and the ferry was described as the primary way for people to come and go from their village.

POLICE INVESTIGATION

Authorities said three people on the larger boat, none of whom were injured, were placed under investigation by police after their boat reached shore safely.

More details about the criminal investigation were not immediately available.

As economies grow, several nations, including China, have been struggling with safety issues and regulating increasingly crowded waterways. “There is still a big gap in the rescue capability between China and developed countries,” noted the Institute of Physics (IOP), a scientific charity.

China isn’t alone: In Hungary, for instance, on the evening of May 29, 2019, the cruise liner Viking Sigyn collided with a smaller tourist boat called Hableany, Hungarian for Mermaid, near a bridge in Budapest, the capital.

The Mermaid sank in less than a minute, killing 27 of the 35 people on board, most of them South Koreans. One South Korean tourist is still missing following the accident in the Danube River, one of Europe’s main waterways.

(With additional reporting by the Worthy News Europe Bureau in Budapest.)

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