Prince said Navy and Customs vessels were on the other side of the island helping another boat of asylum seekers in calmer seas and took awhile to respond to the calls for help. 'There's a very, very bad tragedy unfolding,' Christmas Island local official Gordon Thomson told the AP, declining to say anything further. The Western Australia state police also declined to comment. Officials with the agency declined to elaborate. Our paramount priority is the safety of all involved,' the Customs and Border Protection Service said in a statement.

'There is an ongoing situation which involves a rescue of people off Christmas Island. The department declined to comment further. The Australian Federal Police would say only that they were responding to a 'maritime incident' involving a suspected illegal vessel on the island. In the churning whitewater, it was impossible to tell whether they were women or men, he said. He counted around 10 bodies that appeared to be dead. 'It was a pretty horrible situation.'įoster, an electrician, saw around 50 people struggling against the 10 foot waves when he first arrived at the cliff, but the currents soon began to sweep them away. and throwing them towards the rocks,' Foster told the AP. 'They had lifejackets on them, but the water was just pushing them up. Resident Michael Foster watched in horror as women and children screamed out for help in the churning seas below. Some would-be rescuers were injured on the rocks while trying to get the lifejackets to those in the water, and needed stitches later, he said. Prince, who owns a dive shop, and other neighbors began hurling lifejackets into the water, 50 or 60 of them. Bodies, dead children, the whole thing was pretty awful.' I think there were about two lifeboats on board this thing,' Prince said. All the people on board rushed to the land side, which is the worst thing they could do, but I don't think anybody could swim. 'When the boat hit the cliff there was a sickening crack. He said the boat, carrying about 50 people, tossed for an hour before it finally hit the rocks at the base of the cliff.

Diner dash hometown hero crash