Asia-Pacific

Asylum seeker boat capsizes off Australia, many feared dead

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-12-15 12:46

SYDNEY - A boat carrying dozens of suspected asylum seekers capsized in heavy seas off the Australian coast Wednesday and many were feared dead, witnesses said.

Officials gave no immediate confirmation of casualties or deaths in the accident. The boat crashed into jagged rocks on Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean where refugee hopefuls are housed in a detention center.

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A series of photographs taken at the scene and published on The West Australian newspaper's website show the wooden boat crashing into the rocks. The images also show people floating in the water amongst the wreckage. It is unclear if they are alive or dead.

Christmas Island resident Phillip Stewart told Australia's Sky News he saw several people in the water.

"The tragedy continued for some time and we witnessed people actually drowning," Stewart said. "They were not able to get off the boat when it hit against the rocks. We did witness one person jumping off the flotsam and swimming to a naval rescue boat and was picked up."

The boat was upside down in the water, and debris was scattered across the ocean surface, Christmas Island resident Simon Foster told The West Australian. It appeared the boat had crashed into a rocky area as it was attempting to land at a cove, he said.

"There is so much stuff in the water, you can't tell what is debris and what is people," Foster said.

Foster told the newspaper that seas in the area were the roughest he's seen in months.

"I definitely would not want to be out in that water at the moment, whether you were in the water or in a boat - it's shocking out there," he said.

The Australian Federal Police would say only that they were responding to a "maritime incident" involving a suspected illegal vessel on the island. The department declined to comment further.

Officials from the Western Australia state police and the Customs and Border Protection Service also refused to comment.

"There's a very, very bad tragedy unfolding," Christmas Island local official Gordon Thomson told The Associated Press, declining to say anything further.