11 people still missing in Assam boat tragedy

Rescue workers gave up the search for the 11 people missing after an overcrowded country boat capsized midstream in Assam yesterday evening after finding two more bodies today.

Rescue workers gave up the search for the 11 people missing after an overcrowded country boat capsized midstream in Assam on Thursday evening after finding two more bodies on Friday.

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A police spokesperson said there were about 25 people, mostly students, in a small wooden boat travelling from Naharkatia to Bamungaon in Tinsukia district, when it capsized in the Buridihing river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, about 550 km east of Assam’s main city of Guwahati.

"We recovered two bodies, both girl students, from the river on Thursday and two more bodies were fished out Friday,” a police official said.

Ten people, five girls and five boys, swam to safety soon after the boat capsized.

Most of the passengers were students studying at a school in Naharkatia and returning to their village across the river when the accident took place.

"It is unlikely that we would get any survivors now as the river current is very strong,” the official said.