At least 24 people, mostly Hindu devotees, died and several others went missing as a shallow-engine driven boat capsized in river Karatoa at Awliar ghat under Boda upazila in Bangladesh’s northern district of Panchagarh on Sunday afternoon.

Panchagarh superintendent of police SM Sirajul Huda said that bodies of 16 people were recovered from the river and eight others died in the hospital until 4:30pm while many more remained missing.

Eight of the deceased are children, 12 women and four of them are males but their identities could not be known immediately, he said.

He said that the police and the fire service divers had been conducting the rescue operations.

The capsize took place at about 2:30pm when the Hindu devotees had been returning after attending a programme marking Malalaya, a pre-Durga Puja programme, he said.

Boda Fire Service and Civil Defence station officer Tushar Kanti Roy, quoting the locals, said that the engine-boat had been carrying 60 to 80 people.

The Panchagarh district commissioner Md Zahurul Islam said that they had formed a five-member committee, headed by additional district magistrate, and the committee was asked to submit report in three days.

‘As per the eyewitnesses the boat was overloaded and when it started to ply it immediately capsized,’ the commissioner said.

He said that they would give Tk 20,000 to each of the deceased’s families and financial help for the treatment of the injured people, he added.