Looters let victims drown

SURVIVORS who swam to safety after their overcrowded boat capsized on a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo said fishermen refused to help drowning passengers and instead looted the goods aboard the burning vessel and beat people with oars.

At least 200 people are feared dead from the disaster in southern Congo, one of two deadly boat accidents in as many days.

Seventy other people died in another weekend accident in the country’s north-west.