Sixty people yesterday were hospitalized, mostly for burns, after an engine on a Bangkok commuter boat exploded and sent passengers leaping to a nearby pier or into the water, officials and reports said.
The crowded boat was ferrying passengers on a major canal in the eastern outskirts of the Thai capital, which boasts an extensive network of waterways that teem with motorized commuter boats during rush hour.
Most of the injured were later released from hospital with minor injuries, while 14 were still receiving treatment, according to the city’s Erawan Emergency Medical Center.
Photo: EPA
The center said three foreigners — two Myanmar nationals and one Japanese — were among those injured in the accident.
Bangkok police commissioner Sanit Mahathavorn said two passengers were seriously hurt by flying debris from the explosion, which shook the wooden boat, but largely left its hull intact.
“Most of the injured passengers are suffering from burns,” he told reporters from the pier on the wide canal where the accident took place shortly after dawn, adding that an initial police investigation suggested the combustion was caused by a fuel leak onboard.
“We found that gas leaked at the boat’s rear and caused an explosion in its engine,” he said.
Witnesses interviewed on Channel 3 described a loud bang that rang out just as the boat was docking, sending some passengers racing for the pier, while others leaped into the canal’s murky waters. The director of Family Transport, a private company that runs the boat service, told the network he had suspended 25 boats that run on liquefied natural gas while the investigation was ongoing.
“We still do not know how it exploded,” he said, adding that the boats have been using gas-powered engines for up to eight years.
The shuttle was traveling on the Khlong Saen Saeb canal, which runs through the heart of Bangkok and eventually connects to its main river, the Chao Praya.
The canal boats cost less than US$1 to ride and are among the cheapest and swiftest forms of transportation in traffic-choked Bangkok.
They run about 100,000 passenger journeys per day, according to official figures from 2012.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese