• Source:JND
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Bihar: In a tragic incident, a boat carrying 17 devotees from Umanath Ghat to Diara capsized in the Ganga River on Sunday in Bihar’s Barh area near Patna. The boat reportedly overturned midway, following which it sank and six people went missing, officials said.  

“The mishap took place at around 9.15 am near Umanath Ganga Ghat when the boat carrying 17 people, mostly belonging to a family, overturned midway. The boat overturned and sank in the middle of the Ganga river,” Shubham Kumar, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (Barh), was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

“While 11 people have been rescued so far…some of them managed to swim to safety and reach the shore of the river, six are still missing,” he added.’

“On getting information, officials of the district administration and police personnel reached the spot and started rescue operations with the help of locals to trace the whereabouts of the missing occupants of the ill-fated boat, " said the SDM.

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“The search operation is on to trace the six missing persons. We are also engaging personnel of the state disaster relief force. We are trying to ascertain the identity of the missing persons,” the SDM added.

In a similar incident, in May this year, two individuals were reported missing after a boat capsized in the Ganga River near Mahavir Tola village in Bihar's Maner district. According to police sources, the boat, carrying 10 to 12 farmers, capsized as it approached the Mahavir Tola ghat. All other people on the boat managed to swim to safety.

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According to Sunil Kumar Bhagat, the head of the Maner police station, the boat was ferrying farmers along with their vegetables when the mishap occurred. The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) swiftly responded to the incident and commenced search and rescue operations to locate the missing farmers.

(With Agency Inputs)