A boat ferrying around 125-150 people in the Ganga river came in touch with a high tension wire in Bihar's Vaishali district on Saturday, leaving at least three dozen people injured. At least 15-20 people are reportedly missing. The boat left from Kacchi Dargah ghat at Fatuha in rural Patna for the Raghopur riverine area of Vaishali at around 8 pm on Saturday. Most of the passengers were daily wagers who came to Mokama and Patna in the morning and were returning home. When the boat reached the middle of the river, it collided with a high tension wire because of which at least three dozen people on board sustained burn injuries and many fell in the river and are reportedly missing.

The Ganga river has been flowing above the danger level in Patna for the last few days. A total of 2.74 lakh people in nine blocks of rural Patna have been affected. "I was returning home after my work in Patna. The boat left Patna at 8 pm and after about half an hour it came in contact with the high tension wire. The water current was extremely high in the river because of which the incident took place," said Rudal Das, a daily wager who was returning to Raghopur in the ill-fated boat.

Soon after the incident, Vaishali and Patna administration reached the spot and started the rescue operation. The injured were admitted to many private hospitals in Fatuha. Both Patna and Vaishali administrations were not clear regarding how many people were on the boat and how many are still missing. Officials say they have contacted survivors of this incident but nobody has given a definite number on how many persons were on board when the incident took place.

"After the incident, we have contacted 38 survivors who were on board. Some have suffered injuries and some are safe. We are getting information from the survivors but nobody is giving the correct number on how many persons were on board. NDRF is carrying out searches in the river for the missing persons," said Mukesh Ranjan, SDO Patna City.

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