Deaths in Australia boat crash

15/12/2010| IslamWeb

Wayne Swan, Australia's acting prime minister, has said that some people were killed when a boat carrying asylum seekers crashed into rocks off the country's coast.

Swan told reporters on Wednesday that the boat smashed at Christmas Island, which is where an Australian refugee detention centre is located, and that some people have been rescued but that bodies also have been retrieved from the sea.

According to local media, federal police have said 41 survivors have been pulled out from the wreckage.

A series of photographs taken at the scene and published on The West Australian newspaper's website show the wooden boat crashing into the rocks and breaking apart.

The images also show people floating in the water amid the wreckage.

The boat was about six to nine meters long, with a cabin covered by a sheet of fabric or plastic.

Simon Prince, a local resident who lives next to the cliff where the boat crashed, told the Associated Press he was woken early on Wednesday by what he thought were cheers.

He walked outside to the cliff and instead heard cries for help from a boat just offshore.

"The engine had failed," he said.

"They were washing backward and forward very close to the cliffs here, which are jagged limestone cliffs, very nasty.''

He said the boat, carrying about 50 people, tossed for an hour before it finally hit the rocks at the base of the cliff.

"When the boat hit the cliff there was a sickening crack. All the people on board rushed to the land side, which is the worst thing they could do, but I don't think anybody could swim. I think there were about two lifeboats on board this thing,'' Prince said.

He also said that Australian navy and customs vessels were on the other side of the island helping another boat of asylum seekers in calmer seas and took awhile to respond to the calls for help.

Australia is a prime destination for people from poor, often war-ravaged countries who want to start a new life.

In recent years, many have come from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. Generally, they first fly to Indonesia and then continue on to Australia in cramped, barely seaworthy boats.

Asylum seekers who illegally enter Australian waters by boat are sent to the island's detention centre, or detention centers on the Australian mainland while their refugee claims are reviewed.

PHOTO CAPTION

A file photo of an Australian naval ship sailing off Christmas Island, Australia.

Al-Jazeera