Tragic! 20 wedding guests die as boat capsizes in Myanmar

Twenty people reportedly died and about a dozen were missing on Friday after a boat carrying no fewer than 60 wedding guests sank in south-western Myanmar, local officials said.

This was said to be the third big marine accident in the country in many years.

The wooden boat was unlit and hit a cargo ship on the river in the city of Pathein at about 7.20 p.m. (1250 GMT), they said.

Twenty bodies had been found and 27 people had been rescued, Kyaw Myint, a local government official, told Reuters from a hospital in Pathein.

Rescuers were still looking for survivors, witnesses said.

“The authorities at the port are looking into the cause of the crash; the regional government will help arrange funerals,’’ Kyaw Myint told Reuters by telephone.

“It’s a huge tragedy because there were a lot of women and children on the boat,’’ Khin Lin, a parliamentarian for the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party, told Reuters by telephone from the scene.

Marine accidents are common in Myanmar, where many people rely on crowded and dilapidated boats for transport.

Seventy-three people died in a ferry accident in October, last year, and 64 in an accident in March, 2015.

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