More than 100 people are feared dead after a boat carrying 160 passengers split and sank in Nigeria.
Around 160 passengers were onboard the vessel when it sank in the Niger River, local media has reported.
Only 22 survivors and one dead body have been recovered, leaving 140 people unaccounted for, a local official said.
Most of the passengers onboard were women and children, the BBC has reported.
Divers are trying to find any survivors in the water, but hopes are not high.
Abdullahi Buhari Wara, administrative head of Ngaski district, told Daily Trust: “A rescue operation is underway but only 22 survivors and one dead body have been recovered.
“We are talking of around 140 passengers still missing.”
Mr Wara claimed that the boat was hugely overloaded and has twice its maximum passenger capacity.
The vessel was also loaded with bags of sand from a gold mine, he added.
The river tragedy is the second to befall the region this month after thirty people drowned when an overloaded boat capsized in Niger state, the vessel having split into two when it hit a stump during a storm.
At the time, the boat had 100 people on board.
Boat capsizes are common in Nigerian waterways because of overcrowding and lack of maintenance, particularly in the annual rainy season, TRT world reports.
More to follow.
