SANTIAGO – Six people were killed after a tour boat capsized in southern Chile on Sunday, the country’s investigative police said Monday.
The accident occurred in the Punta Tiburones area of San Juan de la Costa, a town in Osorno Province in Chile’s Pacific Coast Los Lagos Region, some 960 kilometers south of the country’s capital Santiago.
The National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred) had previously reported four deaths, three missing people and 27 survivors following the accident.
At midday Monday, the investigative police increased the number of fatalities to six, saying the last corpse had not been found.
The owner of the boat has been arrested on charges of homicide, the chief prosecutor of Osorno, Maria Angelica de Miguel, told local media.
According to Osorno’s provincial presidential delegate, Claudia Pailalef, the boat had “many more people on board” than it should have, and was not equipped with the necessary safety features.
The vessel sailed from Caleta Condor to Bahia Mansa, a common but risky route due to climatic and geographical characteristics, she said.
“During this summer season (in the southern hemisphere), given the movement of tourists, services of this nature are provided by local people. The distance, sailing between the two points, takes approximately two-and-a-half hours,” she added.
Local authorities said the initial investigation shows one of the motorboat’s engine’s suffered a malfunction, leading to the vessel’s crash against rocks and sinking.
XINHUA
