Residents across St. Vincent and the Grenadines are in mourning Monday after a bus carrying at least 18 people, including 14 school children, plunged into the sea, killing at least four people.
St Vincent authorities said three students were killed, one other missing and at least 10 others have been injured and taken to hospital.
Police in Owia, a community on the northwestern tip of the island, said that the accident occurred at Rockgutter, a community between Owia and Fancy.
The rough seas were said to be hampering the efforts to retrieve the bodies and crisis centres have been established in Kingstown and the northern part of the country.
A grief stricken Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, speaking on national radio, said the “entire nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines…has been touched by this tragedy.
“We all grieve and ask God for guidance and strength as well as we lean on one another,” he said, noting that the recovery of bodies from the sea is ongoing.
“Some of the questions you have are not fully answered, that will come in due time, right now it is the task of making sure that everyone is accounted for. We cannot yet give up hope because there are hope we can find additional survivors as inhospitable as the conditions are, we have to hope…and we have to put the pieces back together and to see what we can do to try to ensure that this…tragedy does not happen again,” Gonsalves said.
“It was a terrible accident and I think everyone’s heart is really heavy because of what has taken place,” he added.
At 12:20 pm, The Milton Cato Memorial Hospital has temporarily suspended visiting hours due to mass casualty situation.
According to reports from the Searchlight Newspaper’s Facebook page, “a section of the Accident and Emergency Unit has been transformed into a counseling area where some family members are receiving counseling at this time.”
Source-Carib360
