At least 15 people died and 27 were still missing Tuesday after an overloaded ferry overturned on Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba, according to the country’s national disaster management agency.
Seventy-seven passengers reached a small island after the vessel capsized and were awaiting transport to safety. Boats were being sent to collect the survivors while search-and-rescue teams continued looking for those unaccounted for.
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Zimbabwe’s Civil Protection Unit said ticketing records listed 114 adults and five crew members aboard the ferry, which was designed to carry 90 people. Officials cautioned, however, that the total could be higher because children below the ticketing age may have been traveling without being included in the passenger figures.
The Civil Protection Unit recommended that authorities formally classify the incident as a disaster.
Rescue operations underway
Footage broadcast by Zimbabwe’s state broadcaster, ZBC, showed speedboats approaching what appeared to be the overturned ferry as a helicopter circled overhead.
Authorities also sent an underwater search-and-rescue team to Lake Kariba to support the effort.
Zimbabwean police earlier confirmed that a rescue operation was in progress but offered limited information on the number of deaths and missing passengers.
Mutsa Murombedzi, a local member of Parliament, posted a video that she said showed people on the shore waving farewell to the aging ferry as it departed.
Murombedzi said rural residents depend on the vessel to cross the lake and reach the town of Kariba. The trip generally takes about five hours, she said.
Some people watching the departure had voiced concerns about whether the ferry could cope with strong waves on the lake, according to Murombedzi.
Lake Kariba lies in southern Africa along the border between Zimbabwe and neighboring Zambia, with the official boundary running through the middle of the lake.
It is the world’s largest man-made lake by volume. The reservoir formed in the late 1950s and early 1960s after construction of a dam across the Zambezi River caused the valley to fill gradually with water.
Lake Kariba now extends more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) and is as wide as 40 kilometers (25 miles) in certain areas.
The capsizing has triggered a large-scale search-and-rescue effort, with authorities trying to find the 27 missing people and establish how many passengers were aboard when the ferry overturned.
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