Nine drown, four missing after rescue boat overturns in Maharashtra's Sangli

SANGLI: Nine people, including four women, died of drowning when a rescue boat of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) capsized while carrying 30 persons to a safer place in the flood-hit Bramhanaal village in Palus taluka of Sangli district around 11.30am on Thursday.
"So far, nine bodies have been recovered from the flood waters while an effort is on to trace another three missing persons," Pune's divisional commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar told TOI. "The remaining people on the boat were saved and have been taken to a nearby school," he added.
Sangli district has been badly affected by floods caused by the overflowing waters of Krishna river which has left several villages in the district inundated over the last two days. Brahmanaal village is among one of these affected places.
For the last two days, the NDRF teams have been carrying out elaborate rescue operations to shift villagers to safer places from the submerged areas, using rescue boats and other material. So far, over 60,000 people have been rescued from the flood affected areas of Sangli district by NDRF as well as Army teams.
Officials from the district administration said, the cause of the mishap is being ascertained although, local villagers have said that the boat may have capsized due to the strong current of the river waters. The boat that capsized, was in use for rescue effort for the last two days, the authorities said.