Lava Mobile calls death of 15 in Vietnam boat capsize incident ‘unimaginable tragedy’, says ‘immediate priority is...’

Lava Mobile said it was "deeply saddened" over the death of 15 people in a boat capsize incident in Vietnam on Saturday. The firm called the incident an “unimaginable tragedy”, while confirming that 14 of its channel partners and one member of the Lava team lost their lives in a boat accident near Phu Quoc Island on Saturday.

Ten people from Tamil Nadu, and three and two from Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, respectively, died after their boat capsized off Phu Quoc Island, according to the Indian Embassy in Hanoi.

There were 36 people on board, including 32 Indian tourists and four local crew members, of whom 21 were rescued.

In a statement, Lava Mobiles said: "We at Lava are deeply saddened to confirm that 14 of our channel partners and one member of our Lava team have tragically lost their lives in a boat accident earlier today near Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam."

"Our hearts and prayers are with their families and loved ones. This is an unimaginable tragedy, and we stand with them during this time of profound grief," the company was quoted by PTI as saying.

It added, "We are in close and continuous contact with the Embassy of India in Vietnam and the local authorities, and are doing everything possible to facilitate the earliest possible repatriation of the mortal remains."

"Our immediate priority is to support every affected family, and our teams in both India and Vietnam remain by their side, extending every possible assistance," it further said.

Besides, all the state governments of the southern states said they are working with the Centre to expeditiously bring the bodies to their respective states and extend all support to the kin of the victims.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Droupadi Murmu and chief ministers of states expressed their grief and conveyed their condolences.

"Extremely saddened to learn about the tragic news of a boat accident involving Indian nationals near Phu Quoc, Vietnam," PM Modi said in a post on X. “My sincere condolences to the families who lost their loved ones. My prayers for the early recovery of the injured survivors.”

How did the boat capsize?

A survivor, Nirmal Kumar from Palani, told PTI Videos over the phone that the speedboat they travelled on overturned within seconds, reportedly due to high waves and possible overloading.

Ashish Kumar, a 48-year-old distributor of a mobile phone company from Andhra Pradesh's Guntur, said the tourists were divided into batches and ferried to the island as part of a company outing.

"We had all gone there as sellers, distributors and employees of Lava Mobile. We reached Vietnam on July 9 and were supposed to return to India on Sunday morning," Kumar told PTI over the phone.

He reportedly said that one of the three boats, carrying 32 Indian tourists, had left the Hon May Rut Ngoai island for another island, while the remaining two groups were still on Hon May Rut Ngoai, taking photographs.

"The incident happened around 1:30 pm local time. The boat had gone barely 300 to 400 metres when it tipped over. We were taking pictures, and it happened before we could react," he said.

"The boat had hardly left the island. We were all screaming for help," Kumar said, adding that the weather conditions were not adverse.

He said rescue teams reached the spot soon after and brought the survivors and bodies back to the shore, but claimed that no medical teams were immediately available.