MANAMA, March 31: At least 57 people, including Westerners and Asians, were killed when an overcrowded leisure boat sank off the coast of Bahrain late on Thursday, turning a company dinner cruise into tragedy.

Among the dead were 17 Indians, 13 Britons and five Pakistanis interior ministry spokesman Colonel Tarek al-Hassan told AFP on Friday as rescuers continued to comb the Gulf waters for bodies and survivors.

Others came from South Africa and elsewhere.

Indian Ambassador to Bahrain Balkrishna Shetty told AFP he had been notified of 18 deaths among the Indian group on the doomed boat and he feared the toll could rise.

Bodies were brought by boat to the shore of the tiny Gulf island state, where they were wrapped in white sheets, while shocked survivors were huddled in wool blankets.

The traditional wooden boat known as a Banoosh had been chartered for a dinner cruise for a company outing and was carrying 137 people when it capsized about a mile out to sea.

“The boat was sailing slowly when it tilted around 30 degrees on one side, then tilted suddenly on the other side and started to sink,” said Indian survivor Kungumon Kuzhiyilthekkathil.

“I was on the second floor when I suddenly fell in the sea,” he said. “One of the passengers saved me. I consider myself lucky.” The boat’s owner accused the tourist company that chartered the boat of overloading the vessel and forcing the captain to sail.

Of the 57 bodies recovered so far, 11 remain unidentified, while 67 passengers survived and 13 are missing, Mr Hassan told a news conference.

Other victims included five Pakistanis, four South Africans, three Filipinos, two Singaporeans, one Irish and one German, he said, adding that there was one American survivor.

The foreign ministry in Singapore gave a higher toll, saying the bodies of four Singaporeans had been recovered and two other people from the Southeast Asian city-state were rescued.

In Johannesburg, the company employing some of the victims of the disaster said five South Africans had died.—AFP