Tourists scream for help and panic as they are rescued from deadly sinking

It would have been just another Thursday in Laos, where Anthony’s father was born.

Instead, the 30-year-old French citizen found himself on a ferry that capsized in the Mekong River, surrounded by more than 140 people, mostly tourists. All but three people are believed to have arrived safely.

Videos online showed scenes of chaos – people screaming for help, children crying and passengers scrambling for their belongings.

Anthony declined to give his full name; Recalls seeing a mother and her two children on the ferry – but not finding them on the rescue boat.

On Monday, Lao media reported that the body of a woman named Pany Her had been pulled from the river. Rescuers later discovered the body of a one-year-old child they believed to be one of her children. The search for a second child continues.

The boat departed from the riverside town of Huay Xai last Thursday and headed to the historic city of Luang Prabang in northern Laos, a common route along the Mekong River and popular with Laotian tourists.

have There were 118 tourists and 29 locals on board, including 4 crew members when it hit underwater rocks, the Lao Times reported.

Within minutes, the ferry began to sink.

“(The staff) were completely unprepared for this. There was a lot of chaos … things happened very, very quickly,” Anthony explain.

“You know, what’s puzzling and concerning is that there are very few life jackets, about 15 at the most… (it’s) really bad.”

As the boat continued to capsize, passengers shouted for help to a passing boat, but it did not stop – possibly because of its relatively small size, he said.

However, the second plane did stop and bring them in. However, this briefly “made the situation worse”, according to British tourist Bradley Cook, another passenger on the flight.

The 27-year-old told the BBC that as the rescue boat approached their ferry, people began to move and put their weight on the side of the ferry, causing water to fill the hull faster.

Mr Cook walked to the other side, climbed onto the roof and jumped onto the rescue ferry from there.

Some managed to climb onto the ferry, while others swam towards it, hung on to the railings and were pulled up by others. Antonydu Mr Cook was among those rescued.

But others are not so lucky.

anthony said he was helping other passengers retrieve their luggage from behind the sinking ferry when he saw a Laotian mother and her two children.

However, when he boarded the rescue ferry, he realized they weren’t there.

“Some people were crying and panicking. It was chaos,” he said. “(But) I’m not afraid for my life…I’m more affected by the three missing people.”

Lao media later reported that the bodies of Lao woman Pany Her and a one-year-old child were found near Luang Prabang.

Another passenger, Gabrielius Baranovičius, 19, told the BBC that he and his friend, both from Lithuania, were not initially alarmed.

“We were just kidding,” Mr Baranovicius said, adding that his attitude quickly changed when he realized they were sinking.

After boarding the rescue boat, Baranovicius said he started filming what was happening on the boat, “but then I heard other people screaming, so (I) turned off the camera and went straight to help other people in the water get on board.”

According to the Mekong River Commission, tens of thousands of tourists use slow boat and speed boat services each year along the 300-kilometer (185-mile) route connecting Houay Xai, Pak Binh and Luang Prabang.

For Cook, the experience was “terrifying” and made him want to leave Luang Prabang “even though everyone was so friendly here” as it was a constant reminder of his narrow escape.

Cook told the BBC in an interview in the northern Laotian town of Vang Vieng that he planned to file an insurance claim for the damaged appliances and missing cash, but he was unsure who would be held responsible.

“I think it was just a freak accident,” he said, though he added that he was “not sure” whether the ferry’s capsizing could have been avoided.

This is not the first time such a shipwreck has occurred in Laos.

In September 2023, a passenger boat traveling on the same river corridor between Houay Say and Luang Prabang capsized in the Mekong River in Bac Binh District, killing three people.

The vessel reportedly became entangled in fishing nets, causing it to lose control and capsize in strong currents.