Overloaded boat sinks in Lake Malawi

Maputo - A boat overloaded with passengers, many of them children, sank in the middle of Lake Malawi off the Mozambican shore on Tuesday, killing at least 16 people, police said.

The boat, which had a capacity of 12, was carrying four times that number when it went down offshore from the northern Mozambican town of Meleluca in the lake known locally as Lake Nyassa, said Jose Mahunguele, the provincial police commander.

"Of the 48 people aboard, 16 died and three are considered missing. Twenty-nine were saved," Mahunguele told reporters.

He said the accident happened on Tuesday morning as the boat carried a group of adolescents to a traditional initiation rite, a common practice in northern Mozambique.

Mahunguele said he did not know the ages of the victims, but that initial reports indicated many of those aboard were children.