SL buries 120 after ferry disaster

FREETOWN – Sierra Leone officials on Saturday said they buried 120 people who died in this week’s ferry disaster off the coast of the West African nation, but scores more passengers are still unaccounted for.

Naval Lieutenant Mohamed Turay of the surveillance patrol unit said, ‘a total of 120 corpses have now been buried, some in mass graves… because of their badly decomposed condition.’He added: ‘What is happening now is that many of the corpses have drifted from the scene of the accident and it is possible some will float into creeks and other places, but we shall continue to patrol despite the inclement weather.’An official statement by Sierra Leone’s President Ernest Koroma released on Saturday did not give the number of deaths but stated that Tuesday’s ‘gruesome sea accident claimed the lives of a large number of Sierra Leoneans.’Koroma declared today a national day of mourning for the victims of the disaster.According to survivors, the wooden boat carried goods and passengers including a large number of children and went down within minutes when it was hit by a storm. Police said on Friday only 37 people were known to have survived after the ferry, the Teh Teh, overturned and sank on Tuesday night.Estimates of the numbers on board ranged from 268 to more than 300. – Nampa-AFP