New Delhi: In a devastating scene, the body of a 3-year-old boy holding onto his mother’s body in a life jacket was recovered from Madhya Pradesh’s Bargi Dam following a cruise boat tragedy on Thursday. The death toll in the tourist cruise boat tragedy that unfolded near Khamariya Island in Jabalpur has climbed to 9.
The Madhya Pradesh Tourism-operated cruise, carrying 39 tourists, sank in the turbulent waters of Narmada on Thursday after losing balance during a sudden storm. Of the 39 people on the cruise boat, 22 managed to swim to safety and were rescued, while eight are still missing.
On Friday morning, a heartbreaking scene was witnessed at the incident site when rescuers retrieved the body of a 3-year-old toddler who was found clinging to his mother’s body. The mother and child were found held together by a single life jacket.
An intense night-long search operation was carried out by rescue teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) on Thursday to find the missing tourists. The death toll is expected to rise. The cruise captain, Mahesh Patel, who was wearing a life jacket, survived and was rescued.
Eyewitnesses recall Bargi cruise boat tragedy
Eyewitnesses recalled scenes of panic and chaos as strong winds and sudden weather changes hit the cruise boat, causing it to disbalance and sink.
Recounting the horror, Sangeeta Kori, a tourist from Delhi, said that sudden strong winds caused water to enter the vessel, leading to panic and its eventual capsizing.
“No one was made to wear life jackets beforehand. When water started entering, they hurriedly distributed them, causing chaos and prompting people to snatch them. Then the cruise capsized,” she told PTI.
“There was a lot of negligence. The pilot of the boat wasn’t listening at all. People from the village were shouting and signaling him to bring the cruise to a safer side, but he kept going the same way, which caused it to overturn suddenly. My brother broke open the storeroom and quickly threw life jackets to people,” she added.