Rescue work after a boat capsized in River Yamuna at Ghurpur near Allahabad. (PTI)
Three persons, including two children, drowned in river Yamuna this evening when a boat carrying more than a dozen people capsized because of the impact of a storm, police said. The boat left from the river bank in city's Dhoomanganj area and capsized near a ghat under Ghoorpur police station area of the district's trans-Yamuna region, about 50 km from Allahabad.
According to Additional Superintendent of Police (trans- Yamuna), Allahabad, Ashok Kumar Rai, the police have lodged an FIR against the boatman who, for making extra bucks, carried load far in excess of his vessel's capacity.
"There were too many persons and heavy goods like motorcycles," the ASP said.
"The boat overturned when it got caught in a vortex arising out of the strong dust-storm that swept across the trans-Yamuna region," he said.
"Ten people, including two women, either swam to safety or were rescued by the villagers who witnessed the capsize. "Our divers fished out the bodies of a six-year-old girl, a three-year-old boy and a man in his 60s after a two-hour- long search operation," he said.
The police officer, however, said the exact number of the people sailing in the boat was not known immediately. "We have not been able to contact any of the survivors. No person has come with the complaint of a missing relative either. Our divers will, however, carry on the search operation till late in the night by way of abundant caution," Mr Rai said.