HANOI: Vietnamese police arrested on Sunday the captain of a speedboat that capsized near southern Phu Quoc island, killing 15 Indian tourists, authorities said.The incident occurred on Saturday as the boat carrying 32 Indian tourists, three Vietnamese crew members and a tour guide overturned in rough seas off May Rut Ngoai islet, state media said. Sailors and rescuers recovered 21 people.Police in southern An Giang province said they arrested the 57-year-old captain of the boat for “violations of laws” resulting in the capsize. Tuoi Tre reported that “initial assessments by Vietnamese authorities suggest this was an unavoidable incident caused by extreme weather conditions” that shifted rapidly.State media quoted sailors involved in the rescue effort as saying there were high waves but no rain at the time, and several other tourist boats were operating in the area. One witness, Ha Van Loc, said he spotted the overturned vessel with about a dozen men clinging to its hull. Several people were drifting at sea and not wearing life jackets, Loc said, according to state outlet VNExpress.Loc and his crew threw lifebuoys with ropes to pull them aboard his boat and called for additional help, with jet skis used to transport victims ashore.The Indian embassy in Hanoi said in a post on X that the remains of 15 Indians who died have reached Ho Chi Minh City. “After completion of formalities, the mortal remains would be transported to India at the earliest.”The Indian mission also said that 16 of the 17 rescued Indian tourists are on their way back home. One, who is in critical condition, is hospitalised in Phu Quoc.The embassy and consulate teams are coordinating with Vietnamese authorities “who are committed to providing all assistance for the earliest transportation of the mortal remains to India”, it said. The Vietnam govt has constituted two working groups to help families of victims.
1 being treated at Phu Quoc hospital
“We continue to pray for the early recovery of the one survivor at Phu Quoc Hospital,” Indian mission said.According to the list, the deceased from Tamil Nadu were identified as Senthil Kumar Jayavel, Muruga Prabhu Arumugam, Sridhar Sundararajan, Shaik Abdullah Abdul Majeed, Balaji Natesan, Vinaya Kumar Chithirapuram Bhaskara, Ravisankar Sugumaran, Santosh Kumar Shantilaljain, Babu Kuppuswamy and Alagurajan Sivasamy.The deceased from Andhra Pradesh were identified as Nallapeta Adiseshaiah Raviteja, Sreedhar Mudiam and Jaya Lakshmi Gelli, while those from Kerala were identified as Avicot Cheriyan Thomas and Loveni Thomas.The governments in the three southern states have issued helpline numbers to assist relatives of the affected persons.
