Off the wire
• Australian PM promises to take in more refugees from Syria  • Urgent: 114 Syrian migrants rescued off Cyprus  • Putin calls recent riots in Tajikistan destabilizing attempt: Kremlin  • U.S. Army investigates violent West Point pillow fight  • Vietnam's sole oil refinery, plus future plants, not meant to lower fuel prices  • Roundup: Thai draft charter turned down by reform council  • Huawei eyes high-end market with new handset  • More than 100 militants killed in fresh operations in Afghanistan: official  • Xinhua Insight: Chinese cosmetics use global expansion to elevate status at home  • 2nd LD Writethru: Thai reform council rejects draft charter  
You are here: 　 Home

Death toll climbs to 43 in boat capsizal off Malaysia

Xinhua, September 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

The death toll of a boat which capsized off the Malaysian coast has risen to 43 on Sunday after another 14 bodies were spotted in the sea, according to the local media.

New Straits Times, a Malaysian English-language newspaper, quoted a police officer as saying that two of the bodies had been brought onshore at about 10 a.m. (0200 GMT) and the rest were expected be retrieved in the next few hours.

He said the bodies were found about 8 nautical miles from the spot where the over-loaded boat was believed to have capsized on Thursday.

It also said the capsized boat, which was believed to be carrying between 70 and 80 people when the tragedy happened, could only accommodate between 10 and 15 passengers.

The boat capsized early Thursday off Malaysia's western coast in the Malacca Strait, and most of the passengers were believed to be Indonesian migrants. Endi