THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
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Village sinks in grief as 14 victims of boat tragedy are buried

Village sinks in grief as 14 victims of boat tragedy are buried

A VILLAGE in Ayutthaya province was in mourning yesterday as families buried 14 victims of Sunday’s boat tragedy.

“It’s a big loss for Muslim people in Ayutthaya,” lamented Jakkrit Senkhao, the imam of the A-Lee Yinnuroy mosque, which sits near the graveyard.
A number of local people took part in a religious trip to an annual Muslim event at the Takia Yokin Mosque on Sunday. But on their way back to the village, the twin-deck boat with 100 people on board, flipped to one side and they were thrown into the water. 
The accident killed 19 people and injured dozens of others. Eleven people are still missing. 
 
‘I held her hands till last minute’
Saithong Boonlak, 54, survived the accident, but is traumatised at the loss of her daughter. 
“I’m totally crestfallen, seeing my daughter gradually losing strength to hold on to the tilted boat and finally drowning,” she said. “I held her hands till the very last minute. She drowned”. 
Saithong joined the fatal trip with her husband and their 16-year-old daughter. When the boat tilted, her husband who was in another part of the boat could not come to his family’s aid. 
Somchai Mahamad, one of the A-Lee Yinnuroy mosque’s board members, said he was in charge of the Muslim pilgrims on the boat but the vessel sank too fast to rescue more people. 
“I looked around and saw everyone scrambling for their life, some made it successfully towards the shore but some helplessly drowned. I saw everything but I didn’t know how to help them all,” he said. 
Preecha Yimyoo, 33, is now praying that his mother and grandmother will be found safe.
“They are among the missing,” he said, adding his aunt was also injured in the accident.
Sunee Krutarchat said that after the accident, she struggled desperately to find her sister. “I finally found her at a hospital but she passed away,” Sunee said The mosque plans to hold merit-making ceremonies over the next three days in memory of the people who drowned. 
The mosque and the hard-hit village are located in Tambon Sampao Lom, Muang Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya district. Sampao Lom can be roughly translated into “Sunken Junk”. 
 
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