Death toll now stands at 68, with 18 children being among the killed after ferry capsized on Lake Kariba<\/p>\n
Twenty-two more bodies have been recovered after a boat accident in Zimbabwe, taking the death toll to 68, police said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The ferry capsized on Tuesday on Lake Kariba, on the border with Zambia. An investigation has suggested it was overloaded when it went over during heavy winds.<\/p>\n
Eighteen children were among the people killed, Zimbabwe\u2019s police said, in what is believed to be the country\u2019s deadliest such disaster.<\/p>\n
Most of the passengers are believed to be villagers and fish traders who lived around the lake.<\/p>\n
Officials said the vessel was authorised to carry 90 people but was packed with 114 adults, five crew members and an unspecified number of children.<\/p>\n
Lt Col Joseph Muchechesi, commander of the boat regiment involved in the search operation, said: \u201cSo far today we have managed to take 22 bodies. We are confident that we will manage to retrieve all the bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The civil protection unit said on Wednesday that 77 people had been rescued.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of people gathered at the district hospital in the lakeside town of Kariba to identify the bodies of their relatives and loved ones.<\/p>\n
A public memorial service was held in Kariba, nearly 280km (175 miles) north-west of the capital Harare, on Thursday before the burials started.<\/p>\n
Survivors said they pleaded with the ferry driver to turn back as the vessel had begun taking on water soon after departing.<\/p>\n
Chance Siyamavhu, 45, told the Agence France-Presse: \u201cThank God that a wave pushed the sinking vessel and we managed to climb on top.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the boat capsized, most of the people scrambled to get the lifejackets but most of them did not even know how to use them.<\/p>\n
Lake Kariba is the world\u2019s largest manmade lake by volume. It stretches more than 200km (124 miles) and is up to 40km (25 miles) wide in places.<\/p>\n
It was created in the 1950s during British colonial rule, when the Zambezi River was dammed, displacing about 57,000 people.<\/p>\n