Dozens missing as ferry capsizes off Zanzibar

Dozens of people are missing after a ferry capsized today as it was sailing from the Tanzanian commercial capital of Dar-es-Salaam to Zanzibar, a government official said.

Dozens of people are missing after a ferry capsized on Wednesday as it was sailing from the Tanzanian commercial capital of Dar-es-Salaam to Zanzibar, a government official said.

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Saidi Shabaani, an official in the second vice president's office, said the ferry was carrying about 250 people when the accident occurred at around 0930 GMT.

"This is another tragedy we are investigating. A rescue team from the police and navy have rushed to the scene," Shaabani told AFP.

More than 200 people perished in September when the ferry Spice Islander capsized while sailing between two of the three islands that make up Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in one of the worst maritime disasters in Africa in the past decade.