Guwahati, Sep 5: At least two people have been killed and 26 others have been missing after a boat with 40 passengers capsized in Brahmaputra river in North Guwahati on Wednesday. The Police and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams are present at the spot and rescue operations are in full swing. According to reports, the ferry takes the route daily- the one used to travel from north Guwahati to Guwahati city.

Reports by PTI inform that as soon as the incident took place, twelve people managed to swim to safety. The State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF) and NDRF personnel have recovered two bodies so far, Kamrup Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kumar Baishya said. The incident took place when the engine of the boat developed a snag and hit a rock near the bank of the Ashwaklanta Temple around 2 pm on Wednesday.

Baishya, who was supervising the rescue operations at the site informed that only 22 passengers had valid tickets and the boat was overcrowded, with 18 motorcycles on it. Details by eyewitnesses inform that there were several women and children among the passengers.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal took to Twitter and expressed grief over the incident. "Extremely saddened to learn about the unfortunate capsizing of a passenger boat in the Brahmaputra near Guwahati", he tweeted. "Disaster relief and security forces are on the ground carrying out relief operations. My heart goes out to families of those affected", he added.

In August, China has alerted India about the rising water in river Tsangpo, called Siang in Arunachal Pradesh and the Brahmaputra in Assam, leading to a possibility of floods in downstream areas. According to a PTI report, a senior official of the Union Water Resources Ministry said it was an unprecedented situation on the Chinese side where Tsangpo broke a 150-year record with swollen waters and hence China has shared the information with India.

"The local authorities told me that the Chinese government has conveyed to the Indian government that there is a possibility of floods in parts of Arunachal Pradesh. We have taken the alert seriously and cautioned people," he told PTI.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 05, 2018 07:49 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).