Two survive shipwreck off Haiti

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/americas/6410437.stm

Version 0 of 1.

A freighter has caught fire and sunk off the coast of Haiti killing at least eight of those on board.

The authorities say they are still searching in the waters off the coast of Haiti for another 44 passengers who have been reported missing.

Two others were rescued and taken to a hospital in the neighbouring Dominican Republic for treatment.

Many Haitians flee poverty and unrest each year in small boats, trying to reach Florida to the north.

The two survivors said the sail-powered freighter had left Cap-Haitien heading for the Turks and Caicos islands.

It is not known why the ship caught fire, some 40km (25 miles) from the border that separates Haiti from the Dominican Republic.

The two survivors were spotted by a US yacht on Wednesday, and had apparently been in the water for at least a day.

"They found just the two people, not the boat, not anything," Captain Jose Antonio Carrero, commander of the Dominican Navy's northern operations, told the Associated Press news agency.

The pair, a man and a woman, both in their 20s, are being treated for dehydration and first-degree burns.

Eight bodies have been found in the water, and a US Coast Guard cutter and planes are carrying out a search for any survivors.