More than 100 Ecuadoreans trying to illegally emigrate to the United States drowned last week their overcrowded fishing boat sank in the Pacific Ocean.
The boat, which was designed to hold 15 people, was carrying 113 when it sank off the coast of Colombia, an Ecuadorean navy spokesman said last night.
The boat left the port of Manta, Ecuador, last Thursday without authorisation, he said. Nine people survived days in the water by clinging to plastic containers and other wreckage before being rescued by fishermen on Tuesday.
There were conflicting reports about when the boat sank. The spokesman for the Ecuadorean navy said it went down on Friday. But another navy official said the boat sank on Saturday, probably after the wooden hull sprang a leak.
One of the survivors told Ecuadorean television a wave capsized the boat.
"I was awake when the boat sank. It wasn't such a big wave for you to think it would turn the boat over. I was on the deck. Then it was just terrifying. Next thing I knew, we were holding on to a barrel," the man said.