DJIBOUTI, April 6: At least 69 people drowned, 20 were missing and 36 injured after a boat carrying more than 200 capsized as it left the main harbour of the Red Sea state of Djibouti on Thursday, hospital sources said.

Mohammed Said Median, director of emergency services at the Tapelletier Hospital where most of the victims were brought, told AFP that 69 people had lost their lives and that seven of the 36 injured were suffering from serious wounds.

At least 77 people escaped without injury, he said.

There were conflicting accounts of the death toll from official Djibouti sources.

A spokeswoman for the foreign ministry said at least 66 people had died while state television quoted the interior ministry as saying that at least 62 people had died.

Television reports said the boat, a traditional wooden vessel, was carrying between 250 and 300 people when the accident occurred around midday as it left the Port of Djibouti.

Officials at a French military base here said they believed the death toll could rise.

“We may find more bodies in the hull of the boat or in the sea,” one said.

The French ambassador to Djibouti, Jean-Paul Angelier, said the death toll remained unclear.

“There are deaths, it is obvious,” he told AFP, adding that there were also survivors and that the troops from the military base, France’s largest in Africa, had responded quickly.

A spokesman for the US-led Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, which is also based in Djibouti, said the US military was aware of the accident and had offered to assist in search and rescue efforts but could not say if the offer had been accepted.

Witnesses said many of the passengers were said to have been travelling to the northern Djibouti town of Tadjourah for a religious festival that is due to take place on Friday.

The cause of the accident was unclear. The weather was reported to be fine when the boat capsized although some witnesses said it appeared the vessel may have been destabilized by the movement of large numbers of passengers to one side.

Khaled Haidar, an information ministry official, said the accident was likely due to an ‘imbalance’ that occurred because the vessel had little or no cargo in its hold and was carrying a large number of people above-deck.—AFP