Australia asylum shipwreck drowns many

Dozens of individuals are feared to have drowned following a boat carrying suspected asylum seekers crashed into rocks on Australia's Xmas Island. what to when getting sr22 insurance in florida car insurance auto

Images in the scene showed the boat, thought to be carrying Iranians and Iraqis, smashed to pieces.

Witnesses said they might do tiny to help as the seas had been too tough to tactic the vessel.

The boat appeared to be wanting to land at Xmas Island, the place Australia has an immigration detention centre.
'Engine failed'

The BBC's Nick Bryant, in Sydney, says he understands that about 70 people had been to the vessel and about 40 had been rescued.

Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan, standing in for Julia Gillard although she is on holiday, confirmed that many people had died but couldn't say the number of.

"A amount of people happen to be rescued, but sadly some bodies happen to be retrieved," he said.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Flying Health care provider Service said 30 people had been getting treated for injuries and 3 of them had been critically ill.

Citizens of Xmas Island said they had been alerted for the catastrophe by the seems of screaming in the shore.

"We threw ropes through the cliffs and we must have thrown in a very few of hundred life-jackets," one resident was quoted as stating by the West Australian newspaper internet site.

"About 15 or 20 people managed to acquire into the jackets but there are bodies all around the water.

"There are lifeless infants, lifeless females and lifeless little ones within the water. The swell is unbelievably large."

One more resident, Simon Prince, instructed Related Press: "The engine had failed. They had been washing backward and ahead quite near for the cliffs right here, which are jagged limestone cliffs, quite nasty.

"When the boat hit the cliff there was a sickening crack. The many people on board rushed for the land facet, which is the worst factor they might do."

Australian media said residents alerted the police at 0545 (2045 GMT on Tuesday).

Australia Customs launched two inflatable boats to rescue survivors.

One witness, documentary maker Philip Stewart, said he arrived at the shore about an hour following the boat first hit the rocks and it was currently in pieces.

He said he saw about 7 survivors but problems had been too tough for rescuers to acquire near enough to help.

"They had been waving and shouting and screaming for help," he instructed Australia's ABC News.

"They had been desperate, by that stage they'd been within the water for an hour currently.

"They hung on for provided that they possibly could and each and every certainly one of them was eventually thrown off into the sea on for the rocks."

He said he saw one particular person picked up although the other folks drowned.

Australia has viewed a rise this 12 months in asylum seekers arriving by boat.

You will discover at present almost three,000 people within the Xmas Island processing centre awaiting officials to rule on their circumstances.

The island is within the Indian Ocean, about one,200km (750 miles) north-west in the Australian mainland and about 300km south of Indonesia.