Islanders tried frantically to rescue boat crash victims

Reporting from Seoul and Sydney, Australia —  Residents of Australia’s isolated Christmas Island first heard the screams of children just offshore.

They ran to the water’s edge shortly after dawn Wednesday to find scores of people seeking asylum, their wooden boat dashed against razor-sharp rocks, being violently tossed about in the Indian Ocean.

“Australia, Australia, help, help, help!” victims called to those gathering along the steep limestone cliffs.

As naval rescue boats edged in to pluck survivors from the swells, townsfolk reportedly made one valiant effort after another to save lives. They lowered ropes and ladders and tossed life preservers and makeshift flotation devices into the water.

But winds from a nearby cyclone blew many of the preservers back into their faces. Those that did reach panicked passengers, most of whom apparently couldn’t swim, were often of little help.

Witnesses described one child who clutched a floating shard of the destroyed boat, seemingly reluctant to let go of his mooring. Then he did, but disappeared before reaching the preserver just a few feet away. They watched other survivors dashed against the rocks, or pulled below the unpredictable seas.

“There are bodies all over the water,” one resident told the Western Australian newspaper. “There are dead babies, dead women and dead children. The swell is unbelievably big.”

Officials said at least 28 people died and 44 have been rescued. Of those saved, 11 were younger than 18. It was unclear how many people had been on the boat, and the search for bodies was continuing. While the nationalities of the passengers remained unclear, authorities said some of those aboard were from Iraq.

Christmas Island, a phosphate mining center about 1,600 miles northwest of Perth, is home to Australia’s main offshore immigration detention center. As many as 6,000 undocumented refugees arrive in the country by boat each year. The island has about 1,400 residents, most of whom live near the community of Flying Fish Cove.

Witnesses said the 40-foot-long wooden boat was typical of those that risk the restless Indian Ocean waters in search of asylum. This one was a weather-beaten red, with a blue tarp stretched over part of the deck to protect passengers from the relentless equatorial sun.

Around 5 a.m., residents headed to work saw the boat chugging toward an inlet at Flying Fish Cove. But its engines smoked and later died in the swell, and the craft began to be tossed about as if it were a toy, with many passengers thrown overboard.

“For a while it looked all right as it was sitting around the front of Flying Fish Cove,” one witness told the Western Australian. “But then one big wave came along and smashed them onto the cliff. Once they hit that cliff, it was all over.”

Another bystander described people floating amid the boat debris, unable to reach help as surf pounded the rocks and sent thunderous sprays into the air.

“We were throwing out ropes and life jackets but no one could grab onto the ropes. I saw children hanging on to the side of the boat, just holding on,” she told the newspaper. “There were others hanging on to rocks and what was left of the boat. Wave after wave was coming in and it was very, very rough. The rocks were very jagged and it’s a very steep area around there.”

But residents kept working. Many ran home to collect more life jackets.

“People were passing by asking what was going on and how they could help but it was terrible, there was basically nothing we could do,” one woman told reporters.

The waters off Australia’s western coast are patrolled by customs and naval vessels looking for smuggling operations and illegal fishermen, but rough weather and the start of the cyclone season meant that there have been no patrols for the last few days, officials said.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, an organization that provides medical care to Australia’s most isolated areas, said officials were on their way to the island to collect the most severely injured survivors.

Many locals acknowledged that their rescue efforts were in vain.

“It was just a horrible situation, just so sad,” one resident told the Western Australian. “But what can you do? We tried very hard to help, and so many people couldn’t get out.”

john.glionna@latimes.com

Times staff writer Glionna reported from Seoul and special correspondent Bennett from Sydney.