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Associated PressVessel carrying as many as 200 Haitians capsizesBy VIVIAN TYSON (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
July 28, 2009 1:32 AM EDT
PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos - A vessel carrying as many as 200 Haitian migrants capsized and sank near the Turks and Caicos Islands on Monday, the U.S. Coast Guard said. One survivor said the boat struck a reef as they tried to elude police.
About 70 passengers were stranded on a reef and four bodies were recovered, said Petty Officer Third Class Sabrina Elgammal, a Coast Guard spokeswoman in Miami. The rest of the passengers were missing and feared dead. "Our main goal right now is just to get everybody out of the water and get medical attention for those who need it," Elgammal said.
The shipwreck happened around 2 p.m. Monday and by late evening Turks and Caicos authorities using small boats had rescued about 40 of the people stranded on the reef, located 2 miles (3 kilometers) southeast of West Caicos island. The Coast Guard and island authorities were evacuating the others, according to a Coast Guard statement.
The boat had been at sea for three days when passengers saw a police vessel and accidentally steered the boat onto a reef as they tried to hide, survivor Alces Julien told The Associated Press at a hospital were some of the rescued were receiving treatment.
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