Australian PM cuts holiday short after asylum boat crash

Australian television has shown pictures of the small wooden boat being rammed onto the rocks, splintering and then sinking, as passengers were thrown around by the waves.

The acting Prime Minister, Wayne Swan, confirmed that he had spoken to Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who would be returning from her Christmas leave to make sure she is fully briefed on the rescue operation.

“It is very difficult weather, very difficult conditions.” He said. “We have naval and customs vessels in the area, and the rescue is ongoing. It will be some time before we have a clear picture of all of these events and the consequences of these events.”

Early reports said that 41 people had been saved, with a further 30 to 50 people missing. A survivor told police there had been 70 or eight people onboard the boat.

Christmas Island’s jagged coastline made the rescue operation difficult as there is no harbour which is completely protected in which to land boats.

One resident said they did all they could to help: “We threw ropes over the cliffs, and we must have thrown in a couple of hundred life jackets.

“About 15 or 20 people managed to get into the jackets, but there are bodies all over the water.

“There are dead babies, dead women and dead children in the water.”

The boat appeared to be Indonesian, and police said they believed most of the passengers were Iraqis. Christmas Island is a regular destination for refugees, and is home to Australia’s main offshore immigration detention centre. In recent years, many asylum seekers have travelled from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.

There are dead babies, dead women and dead children in the water. Resident

Christmas Island councillor Kamar Ismail described the scene in the water as ‘horrific’, saying: “I saw people dying in front of me and there was nothing we could do to save them.

“Babies, children who were maybe three or four years old, were hanging onto bits of timber. They were screaming ‘help, help, help’ and we were throwing life jackets out to them but many of them couldn’t swim a few metres to reach them.”