15 Indian tourists die as speedboat capsizes off southern Vietnam

A speedboat carrying 36 people overturned about 400 meters from Hon May Rut Ngoai Island near Phu Quoc, killing at least 15 Indian tourists and leaving 21 survivors as rescue crews searched the waters off southern Vietnam. The boat had been returning from an island excursion toward An Thoi Port when it capsized in rough seas.

The vessel carried 32 Indian tourists, three crew members and one attendant, according to the manifest details reported from the scene. Vietnamese authorities said the cause was not immediately clear and an investigation was underway, leaving basic questions unresolved about vessel safety, weather judgment, passenger oversight and the speed of the emergency response.

The Indian Embassy in Hanoi said it set up control rooms in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to help affected families and monitor the situation. Indian officials said search and rescue operations were still ongoing as authorities worked to account for everyone aboard and identify the dead.

The wreck struck one of Vietnam’s busiest tourism zones. Phu Quoc is the country’s largest island and a major beach destination that draws millions of domestic and foreign visitors, including many Indian travelers in recent years. That makes the accident more than a single maritime disaster: it is a test of how much protection foreign tourists can realistically expect once they leave the dock and head into local waters.

The crash also revived memories of another deadly Vietnam tourist-boat disaster in Ha Long Bay in July 2025, when a thunderstorm capsized a boat and killed dozens. That earlier tragedy underscored the danger of boating in bad weather and the limits of warning systems, crew decisions and rescue capacity when storms move in quickly.

For Indian families, the loss in Phu Quoc has become a cross-border accountability case as much as a rescue operation. The dead include travelers on a leisure trip, but the unanswered questions now reach well beyond one vessel: who certified it fit for service, who decided it was safe to sail, who counted the passengers, and who was in position to respond when the boat rolled over in the water.