After a boat had unfortunately capsized, 11 members on the heavily overcrowded boat had died and 25 members remain missing of the 40 members aboard the ferry.

The ferry was originally intended to carry only 14 people but instead 40 people were allowed to travel on it on river Sone in Bhojpur of Bihar on Monday morning. The boat was carrying people back from  a village fair in neighbouring Arwal district.

The unfortunate event took place at Khair village which is around 70 km from the district.  Only 6 people could swim to safety and a few were rescued by villagers according to the Bhojpur Superintendent of Police, SR Nayak.

He also mentioned that there is a chance that there could be more people who were killed in the incident as National Disaster Relief Team (NDRF) divers had been engaged in search and rescue operations.

A district administration official had mentioned that there were eleven bodies which were already recovered and that the operation would continue to rescue over 25 people who are still missing.

Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar had announced a generous ex-gratia of Rs 2 Lakh to the nearest kin of the dead while drawing Rs 1.5 Lakhs from the disaster relief funds while the remaing Rs 50,000 from the Chief Minister's Relief Funds.

(AW- Anil)