Al-Dana Tour Boat Capsizes

The lower deck of the cruise boat turned into a death trap: Panicked passengers, caught underwater in the overturned vessel, tried smashing through windows to escape, while their co-workers thrown into the sea from the upper deck watched.

A survivor’s account Saturday of the capsizing — in which 57 people drowned — came as Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said the vessel, a traditional dhow sailboat turned into a floating restaurant, did not have a permit to take its passengers on a dinner cruise in the waters off this tiny Gulf island kingdom.

Col. Tariq al-Hassan, a spokesman for the ministry, also said the boat’s captain, who has been detained for questioning, was not licensed to pilot the craft.

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