9 family members among 17 killed in US boat tragedy
Washington, July 21 : Nine of the 17 people who died when a tour boat sank in a Missouri lake in the US on Thursday were from the same family, according to the state's governor.
Governor Michael Parson said that he spoke to the woman who has also accused the boat's captain for putting the lives of the passengers in danger by suggesting "not to put on life jackets", the BBC reported.
The sightseeing "duck boat" is a modification of a World War II design vessel meant to deliver people and materials ashore where no port facilities existed.
On Thursday the duck boat on the popular Table Rock Lake was carrying 31 people when it overturned. Missouri Highway Patrol said the ages of the deceased range from one to 70.
A Fox59 News quoted Tia Coleman who said she lost all her children, her husband, parents-in-law, an uncle, her sister-in-law and her nephew.
"The captain told us 'Don't worry about grabbing the life jackets, you won't need them,' so nobody grabbed them because we listened to the captain and he told us to stay seated," the BBC quoted Coleman as saying.
She said by the time the riders tried to grab the life jackets it was too late. "I believe that a lot of people could have been spared."
The captain was among those who survived. He is now in a hospital. The vessel began taking on water shortly before 7 p.m. on Thursday. Video footage shot by a witness on shore showed two duck boats struggling through choppy waters and spray, the BBC reported.
One of the boats made it to shore but the other was driven back by the wind and eventually overwhelmed.
Missouri law requires all children under the age of seven to wear life jackets on boats, unless they are in the "cabin area", the BBC said. The vessel sank in 40ft of water before plunging to a final depth of 80ft.
Sheriff Doug Rader said divers have located the sunken boat and would try to recover it.
Jim Pattison Jr, the tour boat company owner, said the storm appeared to have taken people in the area by surprise. The boat, he told the US media, "shouldn't have been in the water".
"Usually the lake is very placid and it's not a long tour, they go in and kind of around an island and back.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Bihar CM removes hijab from newly appointed doctor's face at govt event, stokes controversy
Patna (PTI): A newly recruited AYUSH doctor in Bihar was taken aback on Monday when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar pulled the hijab (veil) off her face, while she was receiving her letter of appointment.
The incident, a video clip of which has gone viral on social media, took place at ‘Samvad’, the CM's secretariat, where appointment letters were given away to more than 1,000 AYUSH doctors.
PTI could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.
ALSO READ: Veteran Congress leader Shamanuru Shivashankarappa laid to rest with full state honours
According to the CMO, the appointees included 685 Aurveda doctors, while 393 were Homeopaths and 205 practised the Unani system of medicine.
Out of them, 10 appointees were handed over job letters by Kumar, while the rest got those online.
When it was the turn of Nusrat Parveen, who had turned up wearing a hijab across her face, the 75-year-old CM frowned and exclaimed "what is this?".
The chief minister, who stood atop a raised platform, then bent down and pulled the hijab down.
The flustered appointee was, thereafter, hastily pulled aside by an official present on the occasion, while Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary, who stood beside Kumar, was seen tugging at the latter's sleeve, in an apparent bid to restrain him.
Meanwhile, opposition parties like the RJD and Congress shared the video clip on their social media accounts, and claimed that the incident was the latest proof of the JD(U) supremo's "unstable mental health".
A video showed Nitish Kumar pulling down a doctor's hijab after handing over an appointment letter to her at a Patna event. The video, which is going viral on social media, has sparked widespread outrage.#NitishKumar #Hijab #ViralVideo #IndiaTodayShorts pic.twitter.com/NdCzNgz8bY
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) December 15, 2025
