Pre­lim­i­nary re­ports in­di­cate that a huge wave may have caused the MV Bari­ma with 116 pas­sen­gers and a 17-mem­ber crew to cap­size on Sat­ur­day night as it made its way to Port Kai­tu­ma, a small vil­lage with­in the Bari­ma-Wai­ni ad­min­is­tra­tive re­gion of Guyana, Pub­lic Works Min­is­ter Juan Edghill has said.

So far 67 per­sons have been res­cued and Edghill re­mains hope­ful that “we’ll be able to ac­count for all that were on board – 116 pas­sen­gers and 17 crew”.

Edghill, speak­ing with the chil­dren of Richard Moe Se­nior, one of the crew mem­bers, said “from what we hear, it’s a big wave. That’s all we hear. It’s from every­body who hears it. But, there will be a full in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to what hap­pened. I don’t want to pres­sure you to in­ves­ti­gate it. I sim­ply want to ex­plain it,” Edghill told the chil­dren.