Hanoi - Six people, including five thirteen-year-old girls, drowned Thursday when a boat capsized on a river in the Mekong delta, a Vietnamese official said Friday. "The boat was carrying too many people," said Nguyen Xuan Ho, chairman of My Xuyen district in Soc Trang province, some 200 kilometres south of Ho Chi Minh City. "It was designed to carry at most 15, but when the accident happened, it was carrying about 30."
The five girls were on their way to school. The sixth victim was reportedly the wife of the boat's pilot.
No bridges span the Thanh My river, and children must travel to school by boat. Ho said the boat, which carried no life preservers, had hit an underwater wooden stake and turned over.
The boat pilot had not yet been arrested, Ho said, as he was injured in the accident and is being treated at a local hospital.
Dozens of children drown every year in Vietnam, where many, even those living near rivers, do not know how to swim.
