d.
- 'There was a lot of screaming'
- Boat crashed in 'putrid' weather
- 'People hanging off the boat'
- Official rescue under way
- Another boat stopped
Christmas Island residents have told of looking on helplessly as an asylum seekers' boat carrying about 70 people smashed onto rocks in huge seas today with devastating results.
The Australian Federal Police has confirmed 41 survivors have been pulled from the wreckage, meaning the number of dead could still climb above 30 following the tragedy, which unfolded near Flying Fish Cove about 6am local time (10am AEDT) today.
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The boat smashed up against the rocks, shown on a video image from Channel 7.
The navy is trying to rescue survivors, but witnesses say they are facing an uphill struggle.
Christmas Island Shire president Gordon Thomson said, "There are people in the water crying out for help.
"There's a tragedy unfolding here. Speak to the police," he added.
Witness Michael Foster told Sky News that survivors were being ferried to a customs boat in deeper waters as conditions were so bad that there was ''no chance to get on land ... unless they helicopter them (onshore)''.
''They may try to get them around the corner where it's calmer.
''The Navy were doing their best to get anybody they could as close as they could to the rocks, but most people were caught up close to the rocks and getting thrown into the rocks, which wasn't very nice. Kids and women screaming and people yelling out."
Mr Foster said there were four navy vessels out at the accident site and officials were rescuing about three to four of the asylum seekers at each time to get them to medical assistance.
Christmas Island resident Mick Tassone was watching the tragedy unfold 200 metres away.
"I'd say they just hit the rocks and have broken up. They had no chance," he said. "Unless they pick them up very quick I don't think they have much chance of surviving, its very rough."
He first saw the boat float past at 5am. "There was a lot of screaming, it was very rough out there.
"There is debris out in front. The hull is just floating past me now. It is broken up into bits and pieces. I have seen a lot of things that could have been people. It is raining and hazy but I wouldn't doubt they could have been bodies.
"I presume there are a lot of bodies in the water, probably all of them," he said. Several navy boats were still cruising around and attempting to make a rescue. "It is just about impossible to get a boat in a water off the island," he said.
Another witness said the situation was "pretty ugly". "The locals are throwing life jackets and ropes over the cliffs, but there's bodies floating around out there," he said.
"The Navy has arrived in [rescue boats] trying to pick up survivors but it's pretty tough. The waves are monstrous; they're seven or eight metres high."
One man with cuts was rescued and was taken away in an ambulance, the witness said.
"The boat's been destroyed. We can't get to them. The cliff face is around eight metres [high]."
About 50 residents were trying to help. The crash site is overlooked by the Golden Bosun Tavern.
Christmas Island was being battered by 3.7-metre swell and 24-knot winds blowing directly onshore at 7am today, maritime weather site willyweather.com.au reported.
Bureau of Meteorology severe weather regional manager Andrew Burton said the tempestuous conditions were expected to remain for several days, due to a monsoon in the area.
There would be frequent showers and thunderstorms, seas of up to four metres, with swells around three metres.
A business owner, who asked not to be named, said the boat was about five metres off the cliff in four-metre swell when he saw it, about 7am local time.
"I thought it was pretty obvious people were going to die," the man said.
"They were sitting out within metres off the cliff and they were all screaming, 'Help us.' [There were] waves pounding into it and a lot of backwash, really bad weather."
The boat had crashed against the cliff by the time the man returned from dropping a family member at work.
"I could see from the hill, about half an hour later, there were just sticks, just debris," he said.
The business owner said there was no sign of official rescuers when he first noticed the boat, but it had appeared quickly.
"Where it came in, it was very close to a point so it would have just drifted around a corner," he said. "It all would have happened very quickly, no one would have seen it coming for kilometres or anything, [it was] really sudden."
People were trying to drop life jackets down the cliff into the water and a navy patrol boat was launching smaller boats into the water.
The man said the weather was "putrid". "It's almost bordering on cyclonic, we've got really big waves, probably four to five metres," he said.
"It's raining, it's windy, it's horrible.
"We knew a week ago that the bad weather was coming and it's been here three days or so."
Ally McNabb, who works at Barracks Cafe on the island, said waves were as high as 15 metres when the boat crashed.
She said her partner received a call about 6.30am and ran down to the rocks to help with the rescue.
''Everyone was standing on the rocks. They were getting as close as they could [to the boat] and throwing in life jackets.
''People were hanging off the side of the boat.''
She said witnesses told her that initially ''everyone was fine'' and the boat had been resting near the rocks for a while and had not touched them.
But then one big wave hit the boat and the passengers in it were all thrown on to the rocks, which are about five metres high, she said.
People trying to help were ''traumatised'' to see bodies in the water, Ms McNabb said.
Another witness on the island said that conditions were so rough would-be rescuers were unable to enter the water, with waves crashing over the jetty.
Locals who would normally be out fishing in the area had been unable to get their boats into the water.
"The water here is that bad at the moment, there is no way they could have got in safely," she said.
"The swell is huge."
John MacDonald, who runs an engineering business on the island, said high cliffs and the big swell meant there was no possibility of people getting to shore.
"There is very little hope of getting to shore in these conditions," he said.
There was nothing many people could do but stand and watch.
An Australian Federal Police spokeswoman said the federal police were responding to a maritime incident involving a suspected illegal entry vessel on Christmas Island.
The federal police and partner government agencies on Christmas Island were co-ordinating the immediate response to the incident and it was ongoing, she said.
"The AFP's priority is the safety of all those involved in the incident," she said.
A Customs and Border Protection statement said: "There is an ongoing situation which involves a rescue of people off Christmas Island. Our paramount priority is the safety of all involved. A further statement will be provided later in the day."
But a spokeswoman from Customs and Border Protection refused to answer questions about whether the organisation knew a boat was in the area prior to the incident.
She would not respond to questions about whether the boat had been tracked in the lead-up to today's events, or if it was known to be in danger of hitting the cliffs.
A media contact at the Department of Defence also refused to take questions on the sinking, instead referring all inquiries to Customs and Border Protection.
Michelle Foster of the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre at the Royal Darwin Hospital said the facility has been "made aware of the incident and is awaiting advice".
She was unable to say how many of the survivors might be brought to the centre and how severe their injuries would be.
A boat carrying eight suspected asylum seekers was boarded by Australian authorities at Christmas Island yesterday afternoon.
Australian Customs and Border Protection said officers from HMAS Pirie found the vessel north-west of Rocky Point with eight passengers and three crew members on board.
They were taken to Christmas Island for security and health checks.
The Immigration Department reports that, so far this year, 126 boats have arrived in Australia, with 2971 people housed at the detention centre on Christmas Island.
However, the opposition puts the figures at 197 boats and 5400 people.
- Chalpat Sonti, Daile Pepper, Georgina Robinson, Glenda Kwek, Thomas Hunter, Paul Tatnell and AAP
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