At least 10 children were killed after their boat capsized in the Tanda dam in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, officials said.
Another six were injured and had been taken to hospital, said Furqan Khan, the deputy commissioner of Kohat district in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where the accident took place, reports AFP news agency.
All the children who died were aged between seven and 12 years and were students at a nearby religious school.
Khan said the rescue operation is still on to locate the missing students but did not provide further details on how many were still missing.
A local police officer, Mir Rauf, said that all of the dead have been recovered from Tanda Dam lake, while 11 have been rescued so far, and six are in critical condition.
According to local reports, the boat was carrying between 25 and 30 students on a daytrip from a local madrassa when it overturned.
Mass drownings are common in Pakistan when aged and overloaded vessels lose their stability and pitch passengers into the water.
Caretaker Chief Minister Azam Khan expressed grief over the incident and directed the district administration and rescue organisations to start a rescue operation on an emergency basis.
“All available resources should be utilised for the safe recovery of the persons who drowned in the incident,” he said in a statement.
This is not the first time that mass drownings were reported in Pakistan. The often-cited problems for such are overloaded vessels who lose stability.
In July, 18 women drowned when an overcrowded boat carrying a wedding party across the Indus river in Rahim Yar Khan capsized.
(With inputs from agencies)
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