131 missing from dam collapse as 26 bodies recovered

Wednesday 131 people are still missing two days after a dam collapse swamped
several villages in the country’s south, killing at least 26 people.

In a rare televised press conference by the leader of the secretive
communist country, Thongloun Sisoulith gave the most specific figure so far
for the number unaccounted for.

Earlier official reports spoke of hundreds missing in Attapeu province.

“One hundred and thirty one people have been reported missing,” he said,
adding all of them were Lao nationals.

Survivors have questioned why they got little warning of the deluge,
which inundated several villages across a vast area with several meters of
flood water.

Two South Korean contractors said they had reported damage a day before
parts of the Xe-Namnoy dam gave way Monday and unleashed a wall of water.

Thai consular official Chana Miencharoen, at the scene of the relief
effort told AFP that by late afternoon Wednesday 26 bodies had been
recovered.