VIENTIANE, Dec 23 (BBC): It was supposed to be just another Thursday in Laos, where Anthonin's father was born.
Instead, the 30-year-old French citizen found himself among more than 140 people, mostly tourists, on a ferry that capsized in the Mekong River. All but three are thought to have made it to safety. Videos online show a scene of chaos - people screaming for help, children crying and passengers scrambling to get their belongings.
Anthonin, who declined to give his full name, recalls seeing a mother and her two children on board the ferry - but they were nowhere to be seen on the rescue boat.
On Monday, Lao media reported that the body of a woman, named Pany Her, had been retrieved from the river. Rescuers then found the body of a one-year-old, who they believe was one of her children. Efforts to find a second child are continuing.
The boat was making its way last Thursday from the riverside town of Huay Xay to the historic city of Luang Prabang in northern Laos, a common route along the Mekong - and popular with visitors to the country.
There were 118 tourists and 29 locals, including four crew, on board the boat when it struck underwater rocks, according to an official report carried by the Laotian Times.
Within minutes, the ferry began to sink. "The [crew] were just totally unprepared for that. There was a lot of confusion... it happened really, really fast," Anthonin said.
"What was, you know, puzzling and alarming is that there were very few life jackets, around like, 15 life jackets maximum... [it] was really bad."
As the boat continued to capsize, passengers shouted to a passing boat for help, but it did not stop - possibly because, according to him, it was relatively small.
The second one, however, did stop and take them in. However, according to British tourist Bradley Cook, another passenger on board, that briefly "made it worse".
The 27-year-old told the BBC that as the rescue boat came closer to their ferry, people started to shift and put weight on one side of the ferry, causing water to fill up the hull even quicker.
