New Delhi: Thirteen children died after a boat carrying passengers to a village feast capsized in the Ganga in Bihar’s Vaishali district on Tuesday night, district officials said. Seven people were rescued, while search operations continued on Wednesday to establish whether any other passengers remained missing.
According to local reports, the accident occurred around 8.30pm near Rampur Shyamchand in the Raghopur police station area, where the passengers were travelling to a neighbouring village. The crossing ended in disaster when the small boat sank midstream, prompting local residents to begin rescue efforts before additional teams arrived.
The district magistrate of Vaishali, Varsha Singh, said those confirmed dead were aged 15 or younger, according to reports. She said the seven rescued people had been taken to Nalanda Medical College and Hospital in Patna, where their condition was stable.
Personnel from the Bihar State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), supported by local divers, searched the river as officials tried to determine the full extent of the casualties. An update on Wednesday morning reported that the confirmed toll remained at 13, with no further bodies recovered at that stage.
The number aboard the boat remained uncertain, complicating efforts to establish how many people might still be unaccounted for. Singh initially cited an estimated 15 to 20 passengers, mostly children, but made clear that the exact number had not been established.
Separately, the superintendent of police, Shubhank Mishra, said on Tuesday night that three or four people were missing. Those preliminary figures remained subject to reconciliation as rescuers and the district administration checked the passengers’ whereabouts.
Residents rushed to the river after the boat went down and helped pull passengers from the water, with victims initially taken to the primary health centre at Raghopur Fatehpur. Senior police and administrative officials reached the area to oversee the response as distressed relatives gathered at the hospital.
The prime minister, Narendra Modi, expressed condolences and announced ₹2 lakh from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund for the next of kin of each person who died. The injured would receive ₹50,000 each, according to the relief announcement.
The chief minister of Bihar, Samrat Choudhary, separately announced ₹4 lakh for each bereaved family and directed officials to accelerate rescue work and ensure treatment for the injured. Together, the central and state announcements provide ₹6 lakh in assistance for the family of each deceased person.
The Raghopur MLA and leader of the opposition in Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, said he had contacted local residents and officials to press for faster rescue and medical assistance. The Union minister and Hajipur MP, Chirag Paswan, also urged the authorities to provide immediate support to affected families and appropriate care for survivors.
The official accounts available did not establish why the boat capsized, and the uncertain passenger count alone does not demonstrate that it was overloaded. The circumstances of the sinking, the vessel’s condition and its permitted capacity remain necessary questions for establishing the cause.
The accident recalls an earlier Ganga boat disaster near Patna on January 14, 2017, when at least 24 people died while returning from a Makar Sankranti kite festival. Overcrowding was reported as a suspected factor in that incident, although it cannot be assumed to explain the latest sinking in Vaishali.