Lucknow: At least six persons, including women and children, went missing after an overloaded boat carrying around nine passengers capsized in the Yamuna river in Kutubpur Patiya hamlet under Bhauli gram panchayat in the Kurara police station area of Hamirpur district on Wednesday evening.
According to police sources, the boat was ferrying villagers who were returning after collecting muskmelons and cucumbers from a river island.
Taking cognisance of the incident, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed senior police and administrative officials to carry out relief and rescue operations on a war footing.
The Chief Minister instructed officials to ensure that the missing persons were traced at the earliest and warned that any negligence in the rescue operation would not be tolerated.
He also directed senior district officials to personally monitor the ongoing rescue efforts and ensure all possible assistance was provided to the affected families.
Officials said a group of villagers had crossed the Yamuna river in a small boat to reach an island located in the middle of the river to pluck melons and cucumbers.
While returning at around 6 pm, the overloaded boat, carrying 10 persons including the boatman, reportedly overturned in deep waters midstream, throwing all the passengers into the river.
The boatman, identified as Dheeru, managed to rescue three persons, Vishnu, Rinku and Parul, from drowning.
However, six others, identified as Rani, Akanksha, Brajrani, Lavayansh, Gorelal and Aditya, remained missing till late in the evening.
Soon after the accident, police and district administration officials rushed to the spot and divers were pressed into service to trace the missing persons. However, rescue efforts were hampered due to darkness.
The rescued persons were admitted to the Community Health Centre in Kurara for treatment.
Officials said the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had been alerted and its team was expected to reach Hamirpur soon to intensify the rescue operation.
Additional Director General of Police, Prayagraj Zone, Jyoti Narayan, said that three persons had been rescued and the search for the missing was underway.
Hamirpur District Magistrate Abhishek Goyal and Superintendent of Police Mrigank Shekhar Pathak also reached the spot and directed the deployment of additional police personnel and rescue teams along the riverbank.
Source: The Indian Express