Amazon capsize kills 12 and dozens missing

by cynthia yoo | May 4, 2008 at 06:57 pm | 262 views | 1 comment

At least 12 people have died and more than 40 are missing after a passenger boat capsized on a tributary of the Amazon in Brazil.

The accident occurred on the River Solimoes as passengers were returning from a party near the city of Manaus.

Reports of the number of people on the Comandante Sales passenger boat vary from 80 to 150, far more than the allowed capacity of 50.

Fire-fighters and 15 divers are trying to locate survivors in the silty river.

The accident occurred on the Solimoes at around dawn on Sunday about 80km (50 miles) from Manaus, the city's fire department said.

Boats on the Amazon and its tributaries are frequently overloaded in passengers and cargo.

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n1pp3r

at 21:34 on May 4th, 2008

I rode one of these boats from Leticia, Colombia to Manaus. They carry every kind of person, tourists, merchants, sick and dying people headed to hospitals, missionaries, anybody in the world. They also carry any and every thing in the world, fish, beer, motorcycles, scooters, concrete, aluminum, bananas, mangos, everything imaginable. Nobody was exactly checking the weight or balance of the boat I was on so I suppose this was inevitable.

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