Ten dead in Burma ferry accident
Ferries wait for passengers in Dala, north of Rangoon. Most people in the impoverished country depend on poorly maintained river ferries for transportation.
A ferry has capsized in Burma, also known as Myanmar, killing ten people and injuring six.
AFP quotes the state-run New Light of Myanmar as saying that the ferry was en route from the port city of Pathein, 80 miles west of the capital Rangoon, when the accident occurred.
The vessel is understood to have capsized as it was trying to dock at a village jetty in the flood-prone Irrawaddy Delta region.
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Three people are missing, but 72 passengers were rescued, the Maritime Executive reports. Six of them were hospitalized and three others are missing.
It adds that the official cause of the accident is now being investigated by authorities.
The Irrawaddy Delta suffered the worst damage when Cyclone Nargis hit the country's south in May 2008, the Jakarta Globe explains. It is one of the least developed parts of the country and its inhabitants depend on poorly maintained ferries for transportation around the flooded plains.
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