BFF-29 13 killed as boat sinks in Brazilian Amazon

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BFF-29

BRAZIL-ACCIDENT

13 killed as boat sinks in Brazilian Amazon

SAO PAULO, March 2, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – At least 13 people were killed when a
riverboat sank in the Amazon rainforest region, Brazilian authorities said
Monday, as survivors described fleeing the foundering boat in terror.

The ferry was taking about 70 passengers up the Jari River, a tributary of
the Amazon, when it suddenly began to tip over Saturday around dawn.

Authorities said they had rescued 46 survivors. It was not clear exactly
how many more passengers were missing.

Search operations were ongoing, using helicopters, planes and rescue
divers.

The Brazilian navy said it had opened an investigation into the accident,
whose cause was unknown.

Survivor Vanderleia Monteiro said the boat, the Anna Karoline III, seemed
to run into trouble when another boat pulled alongside it and tried to
anchor, a common practice for the ferries that travel the Amazon and its
tributaries.

Someone screamed, “It’s sinking!” and within seconds the boat was tipping
over, she told Brazilian news site G1, after fleeing with her husband and 11-
year-old son.

“We escaped through the window and felt our way up the outside wall of the
boat as it tipped over. It was like something out of a movie,” she said.

“The current swept us downstream fast, and we saw the boat sinking in the
distance. Then the other boat rescued us.”

The Anna Karoline III, a two-story river ferry, set out Friday afternoon
from the city of Macapa, the capital of Amapa state in northeastern Brazil.

It was heading for Santarem, in the neighboring state of Para, about a 36-
hour trip. Rescue helicopters took about nine hours to arrive because the
region is so remote.

BSS/AFP/IJ/2032 hrs