35 Killed and 75 missing in shipwreck on the north-eastern India

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At least 35 people have died and 75 are missing after a boat wreck today in a river in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, a police source cited by local media.

The regional police chief, JN Choudhry, said the accident occurred in Fakiragram area, located in the district of Dhubri, where a boat carrying about 200 passengers who sailed on the river Brahmaputra sank because of a heavy storm.

The incident took place in a remote and isolated area, about 350 kilometers from the state capital, Guwahati.

Contingents of police and paramilitary body of the army have moved to the area to participate in the rescue efforts, according to the NDTV television channel.

The Indian northeast, which includes a number of small states with large ethnic and linguistic diversity, stands next to Bangladesh, Bhutan and Burma, and is only attached to the rest of India by a narrow neck of land.

The Brahmaputra rises in Tibet and take in the entire state of Assam before flowing into the huge delta of the Ganges in neighboring Bangladesh.

The boating accidents are relatively common in this part of the Indian subcontinent, full of rivers, tributaries and lakes, often due to the precarious state of the vessels as they exceed the permitted limit of passengers.

Last March, at least 142 people died in a shipwreck similar in Bangladesh.

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