More than 100 people including women and children were feared drowned when an overcrowded passenger ferry capsized Monday in India's north-eastern state of Assam, dpa quoted officials as saying. The double-decked ferry was carrying approximately 300 passengers on the Brahmaputra River when it capsized in the remote western district of Dhubri. Some 100 people swam to safety or were rescued. Senior district administration officials told the IANS news agency that 68 bodies had been recovered from the river in rescue operations late Monday night. "The death toll is expected to cross 100 and rise further. We have recovered more than 50 bodies 'til now and dozens more are missing," top district official Kumud Kalita said from the scene by phone. The boat was carrying farmers, fishermen and other local people. According to police, the ferry was caught in a storm with torrential rains in Dhubri, 350 kilometres west of state capital Guwahati. Witnesses said the vessel broke apart in the storm, and they could see victims being swept away by strong currents. "The storm sliced through the overcrowded boat. We hardly had time to react," Qasem Ali, a survivor, told the online edition of the Hindustan Times newspaper. Police, assisted by the paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF), were carrying out rescue operations late Monday, but darkness and bad weather were hampering rescue efforts. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sad he was "shocked and grieved" by the incident. He had ordered "all possible assistance" to local authorities for relief operations. Monday's accident was the worst ferry disaster in eastern India in recent years. In the last major Indian ferry accident in 2010, nearly 80 people drowned when the overcrowded trawler sank in the eastern state of West Bengal.
