Many missing, 1 dead as boat capsizes in UP

Baghpat (Uttar Pradesh):Rescue operations were resumed on Friday morning after a boat carrying more than a dozen people, mostly women, capsized in the Yamuna late on Thursday evening.

The operations were halted in the night briefly. The body of a young woman was fished out while ten others were rescued by the divers. Two people are still missing and feared dead. The exact number of passengers on the boat is still not known.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath directed senior district officials to reach the site of the accident and supervise rescue operations that encountered problems due to darkness.

The boat was reportedly coming from Haryana towards Baghpat and the identity of the victims is yet to be ascertained.

District Magistrate Shakuntala Gautam said, "The accident occurred near Kuchha Ghat under Baghpat (Kotwali) police station. We have recovered one body of an unidentified young girl aged approximately 17 years, which has been sent for post-mortem."

While two others have been rescued in an injured condition, including 60-year-old Krishna Devi.

"She has given us three names Rajesh, Jannat and Monika who are missing, but she is not sure how many persons were there on the boat. We have sent a team to the other side of the river to get the exact figure. There are also reports that around five persons who knew swimming, rescued themselves. But nothing is yet clear," she said.

The District Magistrate said that an NDRF team was also involved in the rescue operations. Ambulances and medical teams have been deployed.

A similar accident had taken place in Yamuna in 2017 in which more than two dozen (mostly women) had drowned when a boat carrying around 55 people had capsized.