An Irishman is among the 57 people who drowned when a tourist boat carrying more than 130 people on a dinner cruise sank off Bahrain.
His Dublin-based employers Mercury Engineering said Derek Cunningham (52), who was working with them on a major project in the country, this evening confirmed their employee had died aboard the boat with his Thai wife Orathai.
They had two children aged 11 and seven years of age, while Cunningham has another son aged 20
Rescue workers stand on the wreckage of a sunken boat in Bahrain.
from an earlier marriage.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern expressed his sympathy to the dead man's family. He said consular staff were working closely with the authorities in Bahrain to establish whether there were other Irish victims, but the indications at present are that he is the sole Irish victim.
Mr Ahern said: "We have been in contact with the dead man's family and are liaising closely with the authorities in Bahrain. We will provide all possible assistance."
A spokesman for the Bahrain Interior Ministry said 67 survivors had been rescued from the Al Dana. The cause of the sinking is not yet known.
Among the fatalities were 13 Britons and 17 Indian nationals, drowned when the cruise ship with 137 people on board capsized just off the Bahraini coast last night in calm waters.
Sixty-seven people were rescued and 13 were missing from the vessel, the Al-Dana, Interior Ministry spokesman Col Tarik al-Hassan told a press conference today.
It was not clear what caused the boat to capsize, but Bahraini television reported the boat's owners as saying the ship might have been overloaded, and had overturned when most of the passengers moved to one side.
"Things were going all right, people were dancing, people were having fun, but the boat was very crowded," Khalil Mirza, a Bahraini survivor said.
"People were scared in the water," he said. "They were fighting with each other and screaming."
Mirza said the boat listed as it made a left turn soon after it left the harbour and that he sounded the alarm about the accident via his mobile phone.
The Bahraini Coast Guard confirmed that a survivor had made the distress call using a mobile phone. The Al-Dana was a modern version of the traditional dhow sailboat common throughout the Persian Gulf.
Khalil Mirza, survivor
Made of wood and fibre-glass, it was powered by motor and having no sail it had room for dining and dancing during harbour cruises and jaunts to nearby islands. Col Al-Hassan declined to give a reason for the accident, saying there might be several factors that contributed to the capsizing.
He said the ship's captain, a non-Bahraini, had survived and was being interrogated, as part of the investigation.
The death toll from other nations was: Pakistan five, South Africa four, Philippines three, Singapore two, Germany one and Ireland one, Col Al-Hassan said.
But the Indian ambassador to Bahrain, Balkrishna Setty, said that 18 Indians had been confirmed dead.
Spokeswoman for the British embassy, Karen Williams, said that 15 Britons, three of whom were dual nationals, had perished in the incident.
As rescue operations continued it was not clear whether the additional persons confirmed dead by their embassies were among the 11 bodies the Interior Ministry said had not been identified or whether they had been counted twice because they were dual nationals.
US Navy helicopters and divers took part in the search launched by the coast guard last night, but the Navy wrapped up its assistance before dawn today after Bahraini authorities said they had no further need of support.
Agencies