SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) – Three local women drowned in the Dominican Republic when a boat carrying them and foreign tourists sank in waves produced by a magnitude 5.1 earthquake off the eastern coast on Sunday, officials said yesterday.
The quake struck at 4.16 pm local time (2016 GMT) on Sunday at a depth of 53.6 miles (86.2 km) in the Mona Passage that separates Dominican Republic from Puerto Rico, 38 miles (61 km) east southeast from the Dominican beach resort of La Romana, the US Geological Survey said.
Dominican Republic’s Emergency Operations Center said the three local women drowned when the boat that was carrying them and Russian and Italian tourists back to La Romana from the island of Saona sank some 15 minutes after the quake.
The tourists survived the accident.
“The information indicates that the boat capsized as a result of the heavy waves that formed after the quake,” said Luis Ortiz of the Emergency Operations Center.
No other casualties were immediately reported from the quake, which was felt in the east of the Caribbean nation.
Dominican Republic occupies the eastern segment of the island of Hispaniola and is neighbour to Haiti, which was devastated by a January 12 magnitude 7.0 earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people, according to the Haitian government.
