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Laos dam collapse: Survivors and NGOs query official toll

Laos dam collapse: Survivors and NGOs query official toll

Few details of the rescue operation are being released by the Laotian authorities – but a BBC team managed to gain brief access to the site and survivors, despite a ban on foreign media.

 

At the main hospital in Attapeau, the town closest to the disaster zone, those who were injured and rescued have been receiving treatment.

 

On Monday an auxiliary dam that was part of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydroelectric power project collapsed. Fractures had been discovered on Sunday, a South Korean firm involved in its construction said.

Now a huge rescue operation is under way – but few details are being released by Laos’s communist government.

 

 

Official toll questioned

 

Government statistics say 27 people have been killed and 131 people are missing – but aid agencies believe the country may be downplaying the scale of the disaster and the final death toll may be considerably higher.

 

Local residents told the BBC that they believed as many as 300 people may have lost their lives.

 

Meanwhile up to 3,000 people are reportedly still stranded, their rooftops now islands in the murky floodwater.

 

The floodwater surged into seven villages, affecting two in particular. In an area of 200 houses, only about 10 were left standing, a Laotian medical official told Reuters news agency.