20120902
AFP
CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — Survivors say at least eight people have died and another 30 are missing after a canoe overloaded with merchandise capsized in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Conakry, the capital of Guinea.

Ibrahima Bangoura, one of the survivors, said the boat was traveling Friday from the capital to the island of Loos Kassa, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) away. They had just left the port when a violent wind picked up the wooden vessel and smashed it on the rocks. He says there were around 50 people on board, mostly market women. He could hear them crying out.

At the morgue, an AP reporter saw the bodies of six women and two children. A medical official who requested anonymity said they had all drowned. He pointed to the blood coming out of their noses — a sign, he said, that their lungs had burst.