Victims were mostly women and children celebrating Kurdish new year, say officials

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

At least 94 people, including 19 children, have drowned after a ferry overloaded with revellers celebrating the Kurdish new year and Mother’s Day capsized in the Tigris river near Mosul in Iraq.

Col Hussam Khalil, the head of the Civil Defence Corps in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh, said the incident on Thursday occurred as scores of people – mostly women and children – were celebrating Nowruz, which marks the Kurdish new year and the arrival of spring.

Fifty-five people were rescued the interior ministry said. Sixty one of those who died were women.

Many of the women and children could be seen struggling to swim against a strong current.

Residents said the death toll from the accident was the worst in recent memory.

Abdulrazzaq Falih, a rescuer with the river police of Mosul, said he pulled more than 20 bodies from the water. “Children, women, and young, what can I tell you? It was a difficult situation,” he said.

A man who identified himself as Abdul-Jabbar al-Jbouri appealed for the police to look for his wife and children. “My wife and three daughters are in the water,” he cried.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An Iraqi army helicopter searches for survivors. Photograph: Reuters

Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the Iraqi prime minister, ordered an investigation and expressed condolences to the families of the victims. He declared three days of national mourning.

Videos of the disaster posted online showed people struggling against the current. Young men who had been lunching on the banks jumped into the water with their clothes on to try to save people.

The usually tame Tigris is running high at this time of year, fed by snowmelt from mountains in Turkey. The river swelled further after a rainy season that brought more precipitation than in previous years.

Falah al-Taii, the director of Nineveh health department, said the number of victims who had arrived at the forensic department and in the hospitals in Mosul was more than 60, the majority of them women and children.

“There is a large number of fathers and mothers who are looking for their children,” he said.

Saudi Aziz, a 23-year-old Kurd, said he was on another ferry crossing the river. He said the stricken vessel was overloaded with about 150 people when it capsized. He said it was not long before he saw people drowning.

He said he jumped in the water and managed to save a 20-year-old woman. “I cannot describe the scene, it’s a catastrophe,” he said.

Nowruz, the Persian new year, dates back to 1700BC and incorporates Zoroastrian traditions. It is celebrated across territories that once made up the ancient Persian empire, stretching from the Middle East to Central Asia.

Mosul was captured by Islamic State in 2014, but Iraqi forces drove Isis from the city three years later after a devastating campaign that left entire neighbourhoods in ruins.