CHARITY, Guyana — One of the survivors of a ferry that capsized in Guyana over the weekend with as many as 179 people aboard said she lost four of her grandchildren in the chaotic disaster and that the ship seemed to sink in an instant.

“I was fighting for my life. The boat sunk in minutes, seconds,” Helena Moonsammy recalled, saying that boxes fell on her as she tried to save her grandchildren. “I told my grandbabies to cling on to anything as I hollered for them. I prayed all night and was in the water for nine hours.”

At least 69 people have been rescued after the MV Barima sank late Saturday off the Essequibo coast, and 27 bodies have been found so far — four of them children, Prime Minister Mark Phillips said. But the death toll is expected to rise dramatically, he said.

Though the ship’s manifest listed 116 passengers and 17 crew, authorities now believe as many as 179 people were aboard, Phillips said.

An investigation into the capsizing of the 87-year-old ferry is underway. It began taking on water during a trip Saturday from the capital, Georgetown, to Port Kaituma in northwestern Guyana, near Venezuela.

“Brace yourself for the coming days,” President Irfaan Ali said in a national address. “It is going to be a difficult period for us as a people and as a country. May God watch over Guyana and bring us through this horrible experience.”

Moonsammy was among dozens of friends and relatives of the missing who have been gathering at a hospital in the coastal town of Charity to identify their loved ones. She wore a facemask like many Guyanese around her: “I have to see the bodies before I go home.”

Officials have said that the rescued captain and at least one other crew member tested positive for marijuana and remain in police custody as part of the criminal investigation.

Neighboring countries have sent boats, spotter planes and rescue personnel, including a contingent of divers from French Guiana as officials prepare to switch from a rescue operation to a recovery one.

Public Works Minister Juan Edghill said all staff associated with the management and loading of the MV Barima have been suspended amid suspicion that they might have illegally loaded the ferry with additional people and cargo without putting them on the manifest.

Passengers have complained for years that ticket clerks unofficially sell seats to friends and associates for cash without adding their names to the manifest, a practice that has persisted for decades at state-run ferry terminals.

The MV Barima had been dry docked and overhauled in 2024 and was due for major repairs in October.

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Wilkinson reported from Georgetown, Guyana