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Officials axed over ferry sinking
Source: Xinhua |
September 11, 2011, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THREE officials were sacked yesterday in Hunan Province as the death toll from a ferryboat accident climbed to 11.
The ferryboat sank in the Fuyi River in Tangtianshi Town, Shaoyang County on Friday afternoon. Eight deaths were reported initially.
The deputy county director, deputy township director and a maritime division chief were dismissed while the ferry's two owners, Yin Xixiang and Yin Xinquan, who both survived the accident, are now in police custody.
A preliminary investigation found the boat, which has a capacity of 14 people, was transporting 50 passengers at the time of the accident.
Of the 38 people rescued, 20 were injured but in a stable condition. Rescuers were still searching for one missing passenger. They were being assisted by villagers and police officers, the rescue headquarters said.
Most of the passengers aboard the vessel were students. They were returning home for the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.
Lying on a bed in Shaoyang County People's Hospital, 14-year-old Guo Meitao, a student at Tangtianshi Town Middle School, sobbed frequently while recalling how she had rescued her grandmother.
"The boat left the pier and everything was fine for a while, then it suddenly hit something and sank," Guo said. "I realized that my grandma was still in the water, so I grabbed her hair and swam toward the sand bank."
Guo's grandmother, 63, said, with tears in her eyes, she would have died if it wasn't for the heroics of her granddaughter.
Witnesses said a student from the boat pulled two people out of the water but drowned himself, apparently out of exhaustion, when trying to rescue a third person.
The ferry was chartered by the schools to send the students back home across the river.
The Hunan provincial government has since issued an emergency notice ordering a thorough inspection and overhaul of docks and piers to crack down on overloading and illegal operations.
People online blamed local authorities for lax supervision and urged the government to thoroughly investigate the matter.
The ferryboat sank in the Fuyi River in Tangtianshi Town, Shaoyang County on Friday afternoon. Eight deaths were reported initially.
The deputy county director, deputy township director and a maritime division chief were dismissed while the ferry's two owners, Yin Xixiang and Yin Xinquan, who both survived the accident, are now in police custody.
A preliminary investigation found the boat, which has a capacity of 14 people, was transporting 50 passengers at the time of the accident.
Of the 38 people rescued, 20 were injured but in a stable condition. Rescuers were still searching for one missing passenger. They were being assisted by villagers and police officers, the rescue headquarters said.
Most of the passengers aboard the vessel were students. They were returning home for the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.
Lying on a bed in Shaoyang County People's Hospital, 14-year-old Guo Meitao, a student at Tangtianshi Town Middle School, sobbed frequently while recalling how she had rescued her grandmother.
"The boat left the pier and everything was fine for a while, then it suddenly hit something and sank," Guo said. "I realized that my grandma was still in the water, so I grabbed her hair and swam toward the sand bank."
Guo's grandmother, 63, said, with tears in her eyes, she would have died if it wasn't for the heroics of her granddaughter.
Witnesses said a student from the boat pulled two people out of the water but drowned himself, apparently out of exhaustion, when trying to rescue a third person.
The ferry was chartered by the schools to send the students back home across the river.
The Hunan provincial government has since issued an emergency notice ordering a thorough inspection and overhaul of docks and piers to crack down on overloading and illegal operations.
People online blamed local authorities for lax supervision and urged the government to thoroughly investigate the matter.
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