By Hseng Leng/SHAN

Three women were killed and a child is missing after a vehicle carrying Shan National League for Democracy (SNLD) election campaigners drove into the Shweli River in Muse town, located in Burma’s northern Shan State. Four others who were in the car survived the accident, which occurred at about 9 a.m. on Sunday, October 18.

Sai Kyaw Thein, an SNLD party member and parliamentarian for Muse Township constituency-1, told SHAN that the missing child is five-years-old. “The boat stopped there,” he explained, while gesturing toward the river. “And we were here, where three of the other vehicles stopped in line. Then the car passed over us, accidentally tumbling into the river.”

Thaung Tun, with Muse’s Garuna Social Volunteer Team, told SHAN the bodies of three women were sent to Muse Public Hospital for an autopsy. One man and two women escaped the crash. “We’re still searching for the missing child.”