WITNESSES of a tragic boat crash on Christmas Island have described scenes of children and babies drowning as asylum seekers were tossed onto cliffs by huge seas.

The death toll from tragedy is now believed to be up to 50, with about 36 others injured, the Royal Flying Doctor Service said.



"We understand, and it's not confirmed, that there are about 50 dead, and about 33 walking wounded,'' the Flying Doctors' spokeswoman Lesleigh Green told The Australian, adding that they expected to pick up another three critically ill passengers.

The drama began about 6:00am when people living in homes close to the cliffs where the boat crashed were woken by the sound of screams from those aboard.



Word spread among the island's 1,500 residents that a boat was in trouble, with many arriving at the scene to try to provide help -- but instead they witnessed a tragedy unfold.



The vessel, which appeared to have suffered an engine malfunction, was overturned and repeatedly smashed into the rocks by the surging waves, which forced its human cargo into the water.

Forty-one survivors were pulled from the water after an Indonesian fishing vessel, believed to have been carrying up to 80 people from Iraq and Iran -- including women and children -- smashed into a cliff face at Christmas Island, about 1,600 miles (2,600km) northwest of Perth.



Acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan said he had briefed PM Julia Gillard, about the situation and said the rescue was on-going.

Julia Gillard announced late this afternoon she was cutting short her leave and returning to work as Prime Minister this evening.



"We've just had a tragic incident," he said. "It will be some time before we have a clear picture of these events and their consequences."



"A number of people have been rescued and sadly ... a number of bodies have been retrieved."



Two planes from the Australian Flying Doctor Service were expected to fly from Perth to Christmas Island but may not be able to land because of monsoonal weather conditions in the area, Sky News Australia reported.



The rough seas whipped up by the weather pattern also meant the survivors plucked from the water were still on an Australian Customs vessel offshore.



Authorities confirmed four small inflatable boats -- three customs vessels and one from the navy -- were deployed, reaching the scene about 45 minutes after the alarm was raised, in a bid to pull people from the waves.



Some survivors were plucked from the water and ferried to a larger customs vessel off the coast.



Witness Phillip Stewart, who was on the island filming a documentary, said he had seen a woman on the rocks who was swept into the sea -- and he did not see her again.



"We witnessed people actually drowning," he said. "To see people die and not to be able to do a damn thing is one of the worst things you can possibly do."



Local electrician Michael Foster described the surging water at the bottom of the cliffs as being like the inside of a washing machine.



"With the horrendous seas as they are, the only thing that people could do from the mainland was really throw life jackets back into the water or just advise them to swim away from the rocks.



"There is so much stuff in the water you can't tell what is debris and what is people,'' he said.



Christmas Island's 50-mile (80km) coastline is almost completely limestone cliffs, some up to 65 feet (20 meters) high, which meant once in the water people were unable to swim safely to shore.

Kamar Ismail, 44, Christmas Island Shire councillor told The Daily Telegraph he had seen a father holding a child shortly before the boat crashed. Once the boat crashed, he said he couldn’t see them anymore.



“It’s sad, it's sad. And you just see the boat rock in front of you close to the cliff, mothers, a woman calling for help. You never want to see that,” he said.



Another witness, John (who did not want to reveal his last name) was the first on the scene – even before police and Navy and Customs.



“It wasn't a very good sight,” he said.



“I came out the front of my place, and I heard some yelling and screaming, and I thought, ‘what's that?’, and I witnessed some people in real strife,” he said.



“I rang the police straight away to let them know what was going on, the next thing you know there was probably 20 of us down at the water.



“These people were in big trouble.”



John said before the boat crashed, he saw people praying.



And then suddenly a wave took them, crashing the boat into the cliff face.



“It was a frightening scene,” he said.



“There was chaos in the water, there was small children, there were women.”



Another unnamed resident told The West Australian locals had thrown ropes and life jackets to people in the water. "There are dead babies, dead women and dead children in the water. The swell is unbelievably big,” he said.



Local Mick Tassone said he had been getting ready for work about 5:00am when he saw a boatload of asylum seekers float past, “lurching” in the rough seas.



“They were waving their arms and yelling ‘Australia, Australia, help, help, help’,” Tassone told The West.

“The boat was bouncing around and it looked like they were in serious trouble. Soon after that I could smell diesel and I knew they must have crashed or something.”



The rough water, with waves surging 13-16 feet (4-5m) meant that fishing boats which might normally be in the area were not in the water to help with the rescue, Sky News Australia reported.



Australian Federal Police (AFP) released a statement which said officers were "responding to a maritime incident involving a suspected illegal entry vessel" on Christmas Island.



"The AFP and partner Government agencies on Christmas Island are coordinating the immediate response to this incident," the statement said.



Christmas Island is an Australian territory which has been excised from Australia's migration zone, which means that asylum seekers arriving on the island cannot automatically apply for refugee status. In 2006 an Immigration Detention Center was built on the island, which as of October housed more than 2000 asylum seekers.



Just the day before the tragedy, customs officers on board HMAS Pirie detected a suspected irregular entry vessel northwest of the island and boarded it, finding eight passengers and three crew who were transfered to Christmas Island.



The Australian government has been in negotiations with Indonesia in a bid to combat people-smuggling in the region.







Naval personnel were on the scene to try and pluck people from the water, but rescue efforts were being hampered by extremely bad weather conditions, witnesses said.

The Australian Federal police have stated there are 41 survivors but there still could be 30-40 people feared dead.

Melbourne based Asylum Seeker Resource Centre spokeswoman Pamela Curr said border patrol knew this boat was coming.



“They knew, Search and Rescue had intelligence from Indonesia-they knew this boat was coming,” she said.



“They knew how many people were on it so why weren’t they there to meet them.”



Ms Curr said the Government knew the number of people on board before the rescue effort was complete and local contacts told her bodies area still out on the water.



“They knew, why did they let the boat go alone when they knew the seas they were going into,” she said.



“There are three metre swells out there and there is a cyclone brewing, why weren’t they there to meet them. There is a ship sitting off shore with another load of people.”



It is understood WA police may send a team of detectives from the major crime squad as well as forensic experts to help with the investigation and identification of those killed.

Originally published as Asylum seeker boat tragedy