(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) –At least 12 people have drowned and dozens of others are missing after a sightseeing boat capsized on a swollen river in southern India, police and local media reports said.
The Royal Vasishta vessel was carrying 61 people – 50 passengers and 11 crew members, all of them Indian nationals – when it capsized on the Godavari River on Sunday, Andra Pradesh state’s Home Minister Mekathoti Sucharita said.
A search operation was under way, with rescue teams including divers and a helicopter scouring the river to find the missing people, a senior police official said.
Twenty-four people have been rescued so far, while 25 others are missing, Sucharita said.
The accident occurred near Kachuluru village in East Godavari district, 380 kilometres (236 miles) east of the state’s capital, Hyderabad. The boat was heading from Singanapalli to Papikondalu, a famous tourist spot.
