Dozens hurt in blast on Bangkok boat

Gas leak from engine suspected to be cause of early morning explosion on commuter boat.

A woman is helped by members of a rescue team after being injured when the engine of a commuter boat exploded at Wat Thepleela pier in Bangkok on March 5, 2016. Narong Sangnak / EPA

Bangkok // More than 60 people were hospitalised, mostly for burns, after the engine on a Bangkok commuter boat burst into flames on Saturday.

The crowded boat was ferrying passengers along a canal in the eastern outskirts of the Thai capital, which boasts an extensive network of waterways that teem with motorised commuter boats during rush hour.

Most of the 65 injured were later released from the hospital, while 19 were still receiving treatment, according to the city’s Erawan emergency medical centre.

The centre said three foreigners – two Myanmar nationals and one Japanese – were among the injured.

Bangkok’s police commissioner Sanit Mahathavorn said two passengers were seriously hurt by flying debris from the explosion, which rocked the wooden boat but left its hull largely intact.

“Most of the injured passengers are suffering from burns,” he told reporters from Wat ­Thepleela pier, where the accident took place shortly after dawn.

An initial police investigation suggested the blast was caused by a fuel leak.

“We found that gas leaked at the boat’s rear and caused an explosion in its engine,” the officer said.

Security footage showed the back of the boat erupt into flames just as it was docking, sending passengers scrambling towards the concrete pier.

Witnesses interviewed on Channel 3 said others panicked and leapt into the canal’s murky waters.

The director of Family Transport, a private company that runs the boat service, told the network he would suspend all boats in his fleet that run on liquefied natural gas until the the investigation was completed.

“We still don’t know how it exploded,” he said, adding that 25 of his boats have been using gas-powered engines for up to eight years without any issues.

The shuttle was travelling on Saen Saeb canal, which runs through the heart of the capital and eventually connects to its main river, the Chao Praya.

Bangkok’s governor, Sukhumbhand Paribatra, visited injured passengers at hospitals in the afternoon and said he would ask the transport ministry to halt all boat services on the canal until the investigation is complete.

His office said it would find alternative transport for the public during the suspension.

Bangkok’s canal boats are among the cheapest and swiftest forms of transportation in the traffic-choked city.

They run about 100,000 passenger journeys a day, according to official figures from 2012.

* Agence France-Presse