Madagascar boat 'safe and sound'

A boat missing for more than a week in the Indian Ocean with more than 60 people on board has been found, officials from the Comoros Islands say.

"The passengers are safe; some are very weak," Transport Minister Mohamed Chatur Badaoui said, AFP reports.

Contact with the vessel travelling from Madagascar to the Comoros was lost after the crew reported engine failure.

It was found off the north-east coast of Grande Comore island by the French navy on Thursday.

The BBC's Abubakar Omar in the Comoran capital, Moroni, says 61 passengers and crew were found on board, not 31 as previously reported.

Initially Comoran authorities had carried out searches with a small aircraft, but failed to find the boat.

The French navy, which has a large presence in the south-east Indian Ocean, then got involved.

Many small boats ply the route between Madagascar and the Comoros, often overloaded with passengers, our correspondent says.

Last year a boat travelling between the islands sank with the loss of more than a hundred lives.