As many as 400 people drowned yesterday when a packed ferry capsized as it neared the port of Montrouis on Haiti's Gulf de Gonave, maritime officials in Port-au-Prince said. "The report we have from the Haitian Coastguard is between 300 to 400 dead," US Coastguard Petty Officer Scott Carr said in Miami.
UN personnel from the Haiti peacekeeping force were spearheading the rescue effort but so far only 12 survivors have been confirmed found, a UN spokeswoman said.
Conflicting reports put the number of passengers on the ferry, from La Gonave Island through the Gulf de Gonave to Montrouis on the western shore of Haiti, officials said.
Montrouis is near the town of St Marc, which is about 80.5 km north of Port-au-Prince.
"The boat took on water, then flipped over. Maybe 40 people who were sitting on top, as I was, fell into the water. I don't think anyone sitting inside survived," a survivor told Radio Metropole.
St Marc police spokesman, Mr Herald Enock, said the boat left La Gonave at 4.35 a.m. (local time) with about 800 to 900 people on board.
"It was just 50 metres from the Montrouis wharf when it sank. The only people who survived were the people sitting on the top. The rest of the people were in three compartments inside the boat and they could not get out," Mr Enock said.
However, Mr Simon La Pointe, mayor of La Gonave's main city, Anse a Galets, said only about 400 people were on board, including a youth soccer team and several police officers returning from a party.
"The local population informed a Pakistani patrol which was passing through the area early this morning," a UN spokeswoman, Ms Patricia Tome, said. "We have two helicopters now looking for survivors. The Pakistani troops still report only 12 survivors, whom they provided with medical treatment."
Radio Metropole said earlier 25 bodies had been recovered and about 60 survivors rescued. See also page 11