Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Vessel With 200 Capsizes, 4 Dead

A boat with as many as 200 Haitian migrants has capsized off the Turks and Caicos islands in the Caribbean, killing at least four people, the US coast guard said early on Tuesday. The coast guard said it was attempting to help Turks and Caicos authorities rescue up to 70 stranded Haitian migrants, and that between 160 to 200 people may have been onboard the overloaded vessel when it overturned late on Monday. It said it airlifted four injured migrants via helicopter to an airport in Providenciales, while officials from the Turks and Caicos used small boats to rescue approximately 40 stranded migrants.As many as 20 additional migrants remained stranded on an ocean reef and were in the process of being rescued by coast guard and Turks and Caicos personnel early Tuesday, the coast guard statement said. US officials said an HH-65 helicopter from Air Station Miami was at the accident scene and searching for survivors and that the coast guard Cutter Valiant was en route to the site. A British-dependent island chain, the Turks and Caicos Islands are located about 160km north of Haiti.

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