11 passengers are dead and others missing as two riverboats collide in the Amazon in Peru.
According to state channel TV Peru, the incident took place on the Huallaga River in Muyuna. A wooden boat full of passengers crashed into a freight barge due to dense mist at dawn and capsized.
In a statement, the National Institute of Civil Defense said, “So far there is an undetermined number of missing persons, as well as 11 dead and six injured.”
The toll may go up as firefighters, policemen and sailors are searching for those who have disappeared.
Survivors say that families were travelling in the boat, including about 20 children.
The passengers belonged to a religious community that was returning to the city of Yurimaguas after participating in a vigil in a secluded hamlet in the jungle known as Santa Maria.
