A boat carrying over 100 people capsized in the Hooghly River in the early hours of Sunday as it was crossing over from Kalna in Bardhaman district to Shantipur in Nadia district of West Bengal.
“So far, we have recovered the body of a woman. Ten-12 persons are missing,” Nadia District Magistrate Vijay Bharti told The Hindu .
However, locals said the number of missing passengers was higher.
A 54-member search and rescue team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has been deployed.
Difficulty in rescue works
“We are facing some difficulty in rescue works as the water is rather deep and a lot of grass has grown in the spot on the riverbed [where the boat sank],” an NDRF official said.
The boat was located, but no body was recovered, he said.
The locals alleged that the rescue started late and threw stones at the police in the Nrishinghapur jetty at Shantipur. “Two policemen were injured in the clash,” a senior police officer said. The mob set at least six boats on fire at Kalna and Shantipur.
The boat was overcrowded as a festival was going on at Kalna, the locals said.
Bardhaman Superintendent of Police Gaurav Sharma said the boat was carrying “approximately 50 people,” but the locals said it had 100-120 passengers.
District police sources said that on Saturday night, the locals of Kalna were getting agitated as the boat was not leaving the jetty for three hours because of bad weather. They said that in order to prevent any untoward incident, Kalna’s Sub-Divisional Police Officer boarded the boat and persuaded the boatmen to let 40-45 people on board. “But as the boat was about to set off, 10-12 persons pushed the police aside and jumped on board,” they said.
