At least 20 people went missing after a country boat capsized in western Assam’s Bongaigaon district Friday evening.
The boat, locals said, had 35-40 people on board although the police put the figure at 20-25. Most of them were petty traders travelling upstream of river Brahmaputra from Chapar in Dhubri district further west. The accident happened soon after the boat sailed into Champa, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, a little before 6 pm.
District police chief Nitul Gogoi said the cause of the mishap could not be ascertained. “Locals and rescue workers managed to save 15 people. We have no information about the others, but rescue operations are on,” he said from district headquarters Bongaigaon.
This is the second boat mishap in a little over a month in western Assam. Last month, 45 people died when a ferry capsized near Medartari in Dhubri district. The ferry had caught a storm and overturned with more than 200 people on board.