Thirty-five die in Nile river accident

As many as fifty schoolchildren may have died in eastern Sudan when a river ferry capsized near the town of Sinja.

Seventeen other passengers managed to swim to safety after the small wooden ferry, heavily laden with farm produce, turned over half-way across the swollen Blue Nile.

The governor of Sinnar state where the accident happened Younis el-Sharif el-Hassan has said so far three bodies have been recovered and a rescue team from the capital Khartoum, had arrived to help in recovering the rest.

The children, aged between ten and seventeen, were travelling home for the weekend from their schools on the other side of the river.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service