Lake Victoria ferry accident: At least 136 killed after passenger boat capsizes in Tanzania

Initial estimates suggest as many as 300 were on board

At least 136 people have been killed after a Tanzanian passenger ferry capsized on Lake Victoria.

Initial estimates suggested as many as 300 people were on the MV Nyerere when it went down on Thursday afternoon.

At least 37 people had been rescued from the sunken ferry as of Thursday evening, when rescue teams called off their work overnight.

:: Follow the latest updates on the disaster

The death toll was likely to rise, John Mongella, commissioner for the Mwanza region, told The Associated Press after dozens of security forces and volunteers resumed work at daybreak.

“More than 200 people are feared dead,” based on accounts from fishermen and others nearby, because passengers had been returning from a busy market day, Tanzania Red Cross spokeswoman Godfrida Jola told the AP. “But no one knows” just how many people were on board.

More rescuers joined the operation when it resumed at daylight on Friday.

Such ferries often carry hundreds of passengers and are overcrowded.

The Tanzania Electrical, Mechanical and Electronics Services Agency, in charge of servicing the vessels, urged patience in a statement as rescue efforts began.

The ferry was travelling between Ukara and Bugolora, and capsized near the area of Mwanza.

As the president of Tanzania, John Magufuli, urged a nation with a history of similar disasters to remain calm, Pope Francis and African leaders expressed shock and sorrow.

“His Holiness Pope Francis expresses his heartfelt solidarity with those who mourn the loss of their loved ones, and who fear for the lives of those still missing,” a telegram from the head of the Catholic church said, according to the Vatican.

Accidents are often reported on the large freshwater lake, which is bordered by Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

Some of the deadliest have occurred in Tanzania, where passenger boats are often said to be old and in poor condition.

In 1996, more than 800 people died when the passenger and cargo ferry MV Bukoba sank on Lake Victoria.

And nearly 200 people died in 2011, when the MV Spice Islander I sank off Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast near Zanzibar.