RAHIM YAR KHAN: The death toll from the tragic incident where a boat carrying a wedding party capsized has risen to 26, the deputy commissioner said on Wednesday.

According to the deputy commissioner, three more bodies were pulled out of the river after which the toll rose.

He said that a search operation for 23 people still missing is underway and that 18 divers of the Pakistan Army are taking part in it.

Twenty-three people drowned and dozens more were missing after an overcrowded boat carrying a wedding party capsized on Monday, officials said.

The boat was ferrying about 100 members of one family across the Indus river in a marriage procession between the villages of Machka and Kharor in the Sadiqabad subdistrict of Punjab province, according to police and local authorities.

Eighteen women were “confirmed dead” and 25 to 30 people “were either rescued by locals who live along the river or managed to swim ashore”, according to Sadiqabad spokesman Rana Kashif Mehmood.

Police officer Mohammad Hammad said “most of the drowned appear to be women” because “most of the men knew how to swim”.

“The death toll may increase,” he said at the time.

Villagers in rural Pakistan often use boats to travel, avoiding the higher costs of automobile transport on ramshackle roads that are often far from their homes.

— With additional input from AFP