Eight of the ten occupants of a ship that capsized this Monday on the island of Roatán, in the Caribbean of Honduras, they were rescued alivewhile the search for two other crew members continues, an official source reported.
Honduran Defense Minister José Zelaya confirmed on Twitter that the rescued number eight and that the search for the other two occupants of the boat continues. The official pointed out that so far “eight (occupants) have been found alive (and that) the search for two disappeared continues.” The eight occupants of the boat were rescued “a nautical mile and a half (2.5 kilometers) from the Island of Santa Elena”, always in the Caribbean of Honduras, according to the Honduran authorities.
The ship set sail at 1:30 p.m. local time (7:30 p.m. GMT) from the paradisiacal island of Roatán and capsized around 3:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. GMT) off the island of Santa Elena, for reasons still unknown, he added. Ten people were traveling on the ship, including four elements of the Naval Force, the prosecutor of the Public Ministry, Keydi Martínez, three agents of the Technical Agency for Criminal Investigation (ATIC) and two forensic doctors. The rescued and the disappeared went to the small island of Guanaja, in the Caribbean of Honduras, to carry out “the exhumation of a corpse,” said the defense minister. The search, rescue and rescue efforts for the two missing persons continue with three vessels of the Honduran Naval Force and aircraft of the Honduran Air Force.
Roatán is one of the three islands that make up the department of Islas de la Bahía, along with Guanaja and Utila, one of the main tourist regions of the Central American nation.
The civil protection agency today declared a yellow alert (surveillance) in the department of Francisco Morazán (center) and a green alert (prevention) in Choluteca and Valle (south), and El Paraíso (east), although the rains affect almost the whole country.