At least 23 dead and 6 missing after a boat capsized in a lake near Manila

At least 23 people have died and six are missing after a boat capsized Thursday in a lake near the Philippine capital Manila amid strong winds, the Philippine coast guard said.

The boat capsized in a lake in Rizal province, some 37 kilometers southeast of Manila, on Thursday afternoon, as Super Typhoon Doksuri continues to leave a trail of severe weather across parts of Luzon Island, where the capital is located. filipina.

Doksuri, baptized in the Philippines as Egay, had left the Philippine area of responsibility hours before the event in Rizal, reports the local media ABS-CBN, after causing the death of at least five people due to its impact in northern Luzon.

The accident was caused by panic

This medium reports that strong winds hit the Princess Aya ship, causing passengers to panic and move to the side of the small ship, causing it to capsize.

“What happened was that (the passengers) panicked after a sudden gust of wind. So they ran to the left bank and the boat capsized,” Coast Guard spokesman Armando Balilo was quoted as saying by Phil Star.

The rescue teams continue the search tasks in the area of the accident, while it is not clear how many people have survived the accident, about 40, according to local media.

The super typhoon moved towards southern Taiwan on Thursday, after affecting more than 330,000 inhabitants in various regions of the northern Philippines, and will continue towards China.

Beijing decreed the red alert the day before, the highest of its four-color system, before the next arrival on its southern coasts of Doksuri, the fifth super typhoon that has formed so far this year in the Asian region.