Sawt Falasteen - Anxious relatives await news from Vietnam wreck rescue

Fruits and flowers were laid on the coast for the 37 killed in the wreckage on Saturday in what some called Ha Long Bay's worst-ever disaster.

As rescuers worked into Sunday morning to salvage the sunken boat, a handful of people were still missing.

The tourist vessel called "Wonder Sea" had been carrying 53 people, including more than 20 children, around the UNESCO World Heritage Site, according to state media.

Hoang Quang rushed from Hanoi to Quang Ninh province at 2:00 am on Sunday for news of his cousin and her family who were on the boat when it capsized.

The couple -- a housewife and fruit seller married to a bus driver -- had "tried their best" to afford the trip around the world-famous bay.

"They found the body of (the husband), not my cousin yet," Hoang told AFP.

He was "so shocked" when he heard news of the incident and immediately went to the wharf with other worried family members.

"Suddenly the victims were my relatives -- anyone would be scared. We didn't know what to do, except to keep waiting," he said.

"We think that as we are all here, she knew and she would show up. We are all so anxious... We just wish and pray for her to come back here to us."

- 'Worst accident ever' -

By early Sunday, the wreckage had been towed into the wharf and 11 people had been rescued and taken to a nearby hospital.

Security guard Nguyen Tuan Anh spent the night on the wharf where ambulances were waiting to carry the bodies away -- a scene he described as "painful".

"I don't think I have experienced this scene before. This maybe the worst accident ever in Ha Long Bay," he told AFP, adding it had been "unpredictable and also I think unpreparable."

"The whirlwind came so sudden and so big. The wind blew off the framework of a big stage for a grand music show nearby," he said.

Ha Long Bay is one of Vietnam's most popular tourist destinations, with millions of people visiting its blue-green waters and rainforest-topped limestone islands each year.

Several hundred rescuers including professional divers, soldiers, and firefighters joined the search for survivors through the night and heavy rain, state media said.

"The whirlwind came just so sudden," a rescue worker, who asked not to be named, told AFP on Saturday.

"As the boat turned upside down, several people were stuck inside the cabin. Me and other rescuers pulled up two bodies and rescued one," he said.

"The accident was so devastating."

W.Mansour--SF-PST