By Ahmad Adil
NEW DELHI (AA): Nearly 24people died on Saturday evening after a boat with at least 40 people on board capsized in River Ganges in northeastern Patna city in India’s Bihar state, officials said.
A video shot by an eyewitness from the river bank shows two boats capsizing.
The local administration launched a search operation to rescue survivors from the river — which is considered sacred by the Hindu people in India.
“We have so far recovered 10 dead bodies and search operation is still on,” Patna’s civil surgeon (senior health official) Dr G S Singh, told Anadolu Agency over phone.
He said more than a dozen people who have been rescued have been transferred to the hospital, adding that the accident occurred around 6 p.m India local time [1230 GMT].
Singh said that at least 40 people were present on the boat when it capsized in the river. “We fear more deaths in the incident,” he said
Principal secretary of Bihar’s disaster management department (DMD), Pratyaya Amrit, who was camping at the site said, “Twenty four bodies have so far been recovered. We have asked the NDRF to search downstream for more bodies and the second possible boat as well. We even asked the survivors who claim that there was only one boat which was overloaded and capsized.”
Additional reporting by The Musilm News
[India map by University of Texas map library – India Political map 2001/ Creative commons]
