At least ten people, including nine children, drowned when a boat sank in western India on Thursday, according to officials, who are searching for more of the missing.
The event occurred in Gujarat state while students were traveling to a school-organized picnic.
Dozens of others joined a frantic search for survivors around the lake in Vadodara district, where the boat sank.
The victims include youngsters as young as ten, one of their instructors, a hospital employee, and a district official participating in rescue operations, neither of whom gave their identities, according to AFP.
The cause of the accident was not immediately clear but the district official said 27 people were believed to be aboard.
“My thoughts are with the bereaved families in this hour of grief,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“May the injured recover soon. The local administration is providing all possible assistance to those affected.”
Vadodara municipal commissioner Dilip Rana confirmed the toll to AFP but did not provide further information on the victims.
Fatal boat accidents are common on Indian waterways.
Last year, a double-decker tourist boat capsized in the southern state of Kerala, killing at least 22 people.
Survivors of the catastrophe told local media that many of the passengers did not wear life jackets.