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- Jabalpur cruise accident: Mother, 4-year-old son's bodies found holding each other recount haunting moments
Jabalpur cruise accident: Mother, 4-year-old son's bodies found holding each other recount haunting moments
Jabalpur boat capsize: The mother was found clutching her child in a final attempt to save him. The accident has claimed 9 lives so far, while several others remain missing. The boat, carrying around 40 to 45 passengers, overturned during a sudden storm with strong winds and heavy rain in Jabalpur.
A mother and her 4-year-old son died on Thursday after the cruise boat they were on overturned in the Narmada River near Madhya Pradesh’s Bargi Dam in Jabalpur district. Their bodies were recovered on Friday morning, with the mother clutching the child tightly to her chest in a desperate attempt to save him.
The two were part of a family of 4 tourists from Delhi. The father and daughter managed to survive the accident, which has claimed 9 lives so far.
Videos from the site show the haunting moment when the bodies were brought to the shore by rescuers, with the woman still holding her son even in death.
Describing the scene, a rescuer said they initially tried to pull out the woman’s body from the wreckage of the sunken boat, but it would not move. On taking a closer look, they realised she was holding a child in her arms in what appeared to be a final effort to protect him.
"We were shocked to see it. We tried to move the woman's body but it did not move. We tried to see why it was not getting pulled and we saw that the mother held the child so firmly in her arms, we were not able to pull them out," he said.
Gross negligence
Accounts from survivors point to chaos and lack of preparedness. Several alleged that proper safety checks were not carried out before departure and that life jackets were either unavailable or handed out only after the boat began to sink. In the initial moments of the incident, local villagers were the first to respond, throwing ropes into the water and helping rescue those struggling to stay afloat.
Jabalpur boat accident: 9 dead, search on for missing
The recovery comes as rescue operations continue round the clock. The capsized cruise remains lodged nearly 20 feet underwater in the reservoir, with divers, boats and heavy machinery deployed to reach it.
Efforts are underway to pull the vessel closer to the shore and access its submerged sections.
The incident occurred on Thursday evening when an MP Tourism cruise boat carrying around 40 to 45 passengers capsized nearly 300 metres from the embankment after being hit by a sudden storm. Strong winds of around 40 kmph and heavy rain caused the vessel to lose control and sink rapidly.
By Friday, 9 bodies had been recovered. While 16 people were rescued on Thursday, there is still no clarity on the number of those missing.