At least 15 people were killed when a speedboat carrying Indian tourists overturned off Vietnam’s southern Phu Quoc Island on Saturday, police said.

The speedboat was carrying 36 passengers when it wrecked about 400 metres (440 yards) near May Rut Ngoai Islet, police said. Nearby tourist boats spotted the capsized craft and hurried to the area to aid in the rescue attempts.

“My boat came in about five minutes but the rescue was hard. There were a few people trapped inside the overturned boat,” said one boat owner who took part in the operation.Only a few individuals were carried out awake," the boat owner claimed, reported by VN Express.

Other tourist boats still operated in the region, he said, adding that the sea off An Thoi was choppy at the time, but there was no rain. Images from the event showed people of the area administering CPR on visitors after they were dragged from the ocean and onto the beach.

The An Thoi Border Guard dispatched two vessels and 35 officers and soldiers to the scene to support the navy, coast guard and other emergency forces in the rescue work. Rescuers got all 36 persons onboard the speedboat off the water by Saturday afternoon. Twenty-one were rescued, while 15 others, including two women and 13 males, were declared dead.

The vessel operated by Ocean Pear Island Company capsized some 400 metres offshore Hon May Rut Ngoai at about 1.00 pm (local time) on its way to An Thoi Port, about 25 km from Phu Quoc Airport, according to preliminary information from the Phu Quoc Special Economic Zone authorities.

India's embassy in Vietnam said the speedboat that sank was carrying “several Indian tourists” and provided the names of those who died in the disaster.