April 18, 2017
Nearly 300 people
were killed during the New Year water festival, official media said Tuesday,
Anadolu reported.
The state-run
newspaper on Tuesday reported 285 people were killed and 1,073 others injured
as 1,200 crimes and accidents occurred across the country during the four-day
annual Thingyan Water Festival.
“Compared to last
year’s figures of 967 crimes, 272 deaths and 1,086 injured cases, 233 more
cases and 13 more deaths occurred in this year’s water festival,” said the
Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
The commercial
capital, Yangon, had 44 fatalities, followed by the Bago region with 37 and the
country’s second city, Mandalay, had 36 deaths.
The Yangon region
recorded the highest number of accidents with 223.
Eight people died
the first day of the festival last Thursday, after a wooden boat carrying 61
Buddhist pilgrims sank after a fishing net wrapped around the vessel’s
propeller in a river near Kyauktaw in western Rakhine state.
The water festival
was celebrated April 13-16 to welcome the traditional New Year.