Nine die in Indian boat accident

A large boat packed with villagers capsized in a river today in eastern India, killing nine people, police said.

The dead included seven women and a child, said Chayan Mukherjee, the inspector-general for law and order in West Bengal state, where the accident took place. The overcrowded vessel was carrying 70 people when it sank at Kultoli village in the Muri River, he said.

The site is 50 south of Calcutta, the state capital.

Sixteen people were rescued from the river water, and 12 of them were admitted to hospital. The rest swam ashore.

“It is apparently due to overloading. But we are investigating,” Mukherjee said.