DAMASCUS: Two children were killed and 15 people rescued as responders continued searching for missing passengers on Sunday after a ferry carrying more than 35 civilians sank in the Euphrates River in the eastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzor.
Civil Defense said the ferry, carrying women and children among its passengers, suffered a mechanical failure before being swept by the river’s current into a temporary military pontoon bridge, causing it to capsize.
Responders from Civil Defense, working alongside local residents and personnel from the Ministries of Health and Defense, rescued 15 people from the river.
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Civil Defense said the ferry, carrying women and children among its passengers, suffered a mechanical failure before being swept by the river’s current into a temporary military pontoon bridge, causing it to capsize.
Search operations remained underway, with rescue crews using thermal drones, water rescue units and ground teams combing both the river and its banks in an effort to locate those still unaccounted for.
Dr. Obaida Abdul Razzaq, director of Deir Ezzor National Hospital, said the bodies of two children and several injured survivors had been brought to the hospital. He said those receiving treatment were in stable condition.
Mohammad Al-Bash, the hospital’s chief resident physician, said the two children who died were siblings — a 3-year-old girl and 13-year-old boy. He added that the hospital treated five men, three women and two children injured in the accident.
Civil Defense said rescue efforts were continuing as authorities worked to determine the number of missing passengers.
