More than 114 passengers were onboard the ferry when it tipped. But only 77 were rescued and taken to shore.
Tragedy struck Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba as an overloaded ferry overturned, resulting in the deaths of at least 15 individuals. Authorities are currently scrambling to locate 27 passengers still unaccounted for.
The national disaster management agency reported that 77 passengers were successfully rescued and transported to safety on a nearby island.
In a statement, the Civil Protection Unit of Zimbabwe disclosed that they could confirm 114 adult passengers were aboard, along with five crew members, based on ticket sales records.
However, the report suggests there may have been children below ticketing age present, whose numbers remain unverified.
The overloaded vessel exceeded its 90-passenger limit, the agency revealed.
Mutsa Murombedzi, a local member of parliament, posted a video of what she said were people on shore waving off what appeared to be the ageing ferry at the start of its journey.
She said rural communities use the boat to travel along the lake to the town of Kariba.
Some people standing on the shore were also concerned about whether the ferry would survive strong waves on the lake, according to the video.
Earlier, Zimbabwe police said a rescue operation was underway but provided no further details.
Zimbabwean state broadcaster ZBC published video of speedboats approaching what appeared to be an overturned boat on the lake as a helicopter hovered overhead.
Lake Kariba in southern Africa forms part of the border between Zimbabwe and its neighbour Zambia.
It is the largest man-made lake in the world by volume and was created in the late 1950s and early 1960s by building a dam wall to block the Zambezi River — resulting in a valley slowly filling with water to form a huge lake that’s now more than 200km long and up to 40km wide in places.