A boat carrying about 200 asylum seekers to Australia has capsized 120 nautical miles north of Christmas Island, dpa cited reports as saying Thursday. Two Australian navy vessels were heading to the site and three merchant ships in the area were joining the search as nightfall was approaching. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority was alerted to the vessel in distress by a surveillance plane around 3pm (0500 GMT). The aircraft crew saw about 40 people standing on the hull of the upturned boat, and about 35 in the water, said West Australian Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan. "There were about 200 people on board, but there weren't 200 life jackets," he said, adding that many of the people seen in the water were likely to be dead. A spokeswoman for the authority told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the boat was in the Indonesian rescue zone and Indonesia was coordinating the search and rescue efforts. "We can confirm there have been some survivors, but we can't confirm numbers at this stage," she was quoted as saying.
