About 20 people, mostly women and children, have been reported drowned in a canoe accident which occurred in Badau village of Bagwai local Government, Kano state on Tuesday.
According to eyewitnesses the incident occurred at about 6pm as the overloaded canoe capsized in the middle of the river while conveying passengers from Badau village to Bagwai town.
One of the eyewitnesses said: “The passengers were travelling to Bagwai town to attend the annual Mulud festival. Scores of others sustained various degrees of injuries. Very few passengers survived the incident.”
The passengers drowned because they could not swim to the bank of the river and were not wearing life jackets.
Spokesman, Kano State Fire Service, Saminu Yusuf Abdullahi, confirmed the incident, will recalled a similar tragedy in 2007 in the same local government.
Abdullahi disclosed that 20 corpses have so far been recovered and that seven people were rescued alive.
“More 49 persons were in the boat which was on its way to Bagwai town from Badau village when the incident happened. The rescue operation is still on” he said.
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