2 dead after Japanese school trip boats capsize off US military base site in Okinawa
A 17-year-old female student and a boat captain were pronounced dead after all 21 on board the two vessels were thrown into the water
Two boats carrying 21 people capsized on Monday off Henoko, a controversial relocation site for a US military base off Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, throwing all into the water and leaving two of them dead, officials said.
The Japan Coast Guard said 18 of them were students from a Kyoto high school on two boats, 10 on Heiwa Maru and eight on the smaller Fukutsu, to observe the Henoko area as part of their peace education programme.
Rescuers pulled all 21 people out of the water, but 17-year-old student Tomoka Takeishi and the captain of Fukutsu, 71-year-old Hajime Kanai, were later pronounced dead, officials said. Takeishi was wearing a life jacket at the time of her death.
Two people were injured but their conditions are not life-threatening.
The two boats appeared to have been overturned by a huge wave, coastguard officials said.