Boat capsizes in Orissa: 11 drown

A boat overcrowded with picnic guests capsized on a river in India's eastern Orissa state, and at least 11 people drowned, officials said.

Police, firefighters and emergency workers rescued dozens of people from the water, after the boat sank Sunday in Orissa's Sambalpur District, about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) southeast of New Delhi, state government official Pradeep Kumar Mahapatra said.

Rescuers used flashlights to search overnight for six or seven people feared trapped in the hull, Mahapatra said.

Survivors said the boat had been carrying more than 90 people back from a picnic on the opposite banks of the Hirakud reservoir.

Authorities were investigating the accident.


 

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