Six missing after country boat capsized

Six people, five girls and a woman, were missing after a country boat they were travelling in capsized in river Gautami in Andhra Pradesh's East Godavari district this evening, an official communique said.

The AP State Disaster Management Authority said 26 passengers of the boat were rescued but two of them were hospitalised with injuries.

Thirty-two passengers were travelling in the boat that was on its way from Saladivari Palem to Pasuvullanka when it capsized after colliding with a pier of an under-construction bridge, it said.

The number of fatalities was yet to be confirmed, the SDMA said.

A 30-member team from the State Disaster Response and Fire Services Department began a search operation at the accident spot using boats and high-powered lamps.

A 22-member team of the State Disaster Response Force from Kakinada was also taking part in the operation while NDRF teams from Kakinada and Visakhapatnam were also joining with necessary equipment, the SDMA said.

East Godavari District Collector Kartikeya Misra and Superintendent of Police Vishal Gunni, who also reached the spot, were supervising the rescue operation.

As the river was in spate due to flood, the water was swirling, making the boat unstable, a SDMA senior official here said.

It hit a pier of the bridge that was being constructed on the river and capsized, he said, adding that some of the students in the boat climbed the base of the pier and saved themselves.

Fishermen and local villagers, as well as the bridge construction workers, jumped in following the accident to rescue the people.