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19 July 2012| last updated at 02:34PM

31 dead, over 100 missing in Zanzibar ferry disaster



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ZANZIBAR (Tanzania): At least 31 people have drowned and more than a hundred more are missing feared dead after a ferry sank off Zanzibar, police said today, a day after the accident.

 

The vessel, which was officially carrying almost 290 passengers and crew,  including more than 30 children, went down in choppy waters off Zanzibar after  leaving Tanzania’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam around midday Wednesday.
 
It was the second such tragedy in less than a year.
 
Officials said emergency workers had rescued 149 people so far and  recovered 31 bodies, including at least two Europeans.
 
But there was now little hope of saving more people, said Zanzibar police  spokesman Mohamed Mhina.
 
“Search operations continue but it is now almost impossible survivors will  be found...The ship has completely sunk. There were 290 people on board,” said  Mhina.
 
“The weather was very bad, there were big waves and strong wind,” which had  hampered rescue operations and forced a halt overnight, he added.
 
Tanzania’s police chief arrived in Zanzibar to coordinate operations and  launch an investigation.
 
Mohamed Shein, president of the semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago has  declared three days of mourning.
 
On Wednesday, weeping relatives gathered on the quaysides in both Dar es  Salaam and Zanzibar, where survivors emerged soaking wet from rescue boats. 
Foreign tourists were seen wrapped in blankets.
 
The archipelago is famed both for its white-sand beach resorts and for  Stone Town, the old quarter of Zanzibar, which is a UNESCO heritage site and  popular tourist destination.
 
Saidi Shabaani, an official in Zanzibar’s vice president’s office, said the  ferry had been carrying 251 adults, 31 children and six crew, according to the  passenger list. The number of foreigners on board was not yet known.
 
But ferries in the region very often carry additional passengers who do not  feature on the official manifest.
 
More than 200 people perished in September when the ferry Spice Islander  capsized as it sailed between two of the three main islands that make up  Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania.
 
That was one of the worst maritime disasters in Africa in the past decade. -- AFP

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