At least 40 dead as Bahrain tourist ship sinks

MANAMA - A passenger boat carrying some 150 tourists, including Westerners, sank off the coast of Bahrain in the Gulf on Thursday and residents said more than 40 bodies were found. The vessel was believed to have taken out the tourists for a short tour of the Gulf, a hospital source said. "I have seen at least 48 bodies," said a resident, speaking by telephone from outside a port in the island state.
The official news agency BNA said 60 passengers had been rescued and taken to hospitals. "There were about 150 on the ship. Many on board were rescued," a Bahraini official said. He declined to say how many may have died.
The British Foreign Office in London said it was "very likely" the ship was carrying British passengers. British diplomats were at the Bahrain coastguard center and the hospital where survivors and the dead were being taken, the spokesman said.
Ambulances could be heard rushing to another port from which the vessel had set off.
A U.S. Navy spokesman said divers and small Navy vessels were helping in the rescue operations.
"The first report we received was that a Dhow (traditional wooden boat) has capsized. We are preparing a helicopter to join the rescue," the spokesman said.
"There is no initial indication that this was an attack," he said. Pro-Western Bahrain hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet.