Comoros ship sinks with 53 on board

ANTANANARIVO - A Comorian ship carrying 53 passengers sank on its way from Madagascar to Comoros, with at least 22 survivors, a police source said today.

The Al Mubarak left the Madagascan port of Mahajanga on Friday but had not arrived in the Comorian capital of Moroni on Monday, said Roland Andreas, director of investigations at the state secretariat for public security.

"We lost contact with the boat when it was between the islands of Moheli and Mayotte," he said, adding that 17 of the passengers were from Malagasy citizens.

French sailors, requested to help by the Comorian government, found one survivor, then another 21.

They then found another lifeboat with an unknown number of passengers aboard.

- REUTERS