The Lebanese military recovered the bodies of five migrants whose boat carrying nearly 60 people sank the night before, raising the death toll to six, state media reported.
Col. Haitham Dinnawi, commander of the Lebanese navy, points to a damaged part of the Lebanese navy boat which was attempting to force a small boat with migrants to turn back to the shore before sit sank while carrying nearly 60 people, during a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, April 24, 2022. Dinnawi told reporters the migrant boat that sank was old and only capable of carrying six people and no one onboard was wearing life vests.
Several survivors told local TV stations that the Lebanese navy is to blame for the incident. They said a military ship rammed their migrant boat twice, damaging it, in an effort to force it to return to the coast. “It was a crime to take people on such a boat,” Dinnawi said, adding that it was manufactured in 1974 and carrying 15 times its capacity. He said search operations are still ongoing for the missing adding that they have recovered the bodies of six people so far, including five on Sunday and one on Saturday.
In the afternoon, angry residents attacked a main army checkpoint in Tripoli, throwing stones at troops who responded by firing into the air. Some shops closed as angry men blocked several streets in Tripoli, Lebanon's most impoverished city. There were no reports of injuries. Search operations began Saturday night after the boat, apparently heading to Europe, sank shortly after leaving the coastal Lebanese town of Qalamoun., but since the country’s economic meltdown began in October 2019, hundreds of people have left on boats hoping for a better life in Europe.
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