Two people went missing after a boat capsized in the Ganga River in Mahavir Tola village in Bihar’s Maner district on Sunday morning. According to the police, the boat was ferrying around 10 to 12 farmers.
All the other people on the boat swam to the shore, the police said.
“In the morning, around 7 am to 8 am, a few farmers were taking their vegetables in a boat, and as they were about to reach the Mahavir Tola ghat, the boat capsized,” Maner police station head Sunil Kumar Bhagat told news agency ANI.
The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) immediately reached the incident spot and rescue operations are currently underway.
Further details are awaited.
Meanwhile, several incidents of boat capsizing have come to light in the last two months.
On May 9, two people went missing after a boat capsized in the Jhelum River in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district. According to the officials, there were nine labourers onboard the boat – out of which seven were rescued.
“Nine people were crossing the river; They were doing some work on the other side of the river. Unfortunately, the boat capsized…The State Disaster Response Force, police administration, and paramilitary forces carried out a rescue operation,” Pampore Tehsildar Asif Ali said.
A similar incident took place last month in which seven people, including two children and their mother, were killed after a boat capsized in the Jhelum River in the Gandbal area. The incident took place on April 16 at around 8 am as the wooden boat headed east from Gandabal towards Batwara in the Jammu and Kashmir capital, with 15 passengers on board.
According to the police, mostly all children onboard studied in the Kendriya Vidyalaya in Sonwar across the river.
Shortly after the incident, the Jammu and Kashmir government provided an ex gratia relief of ₹five lakh to each family who lost their loved ones and ₹50,000 to each of those who were injured.
(With inputs from ANI)