At least 10 people went missing when a passenger boat capsized in the Teesta river in Burirhat area under Rajarhat upazila of Kurigram district yesterday noon.

Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Md Rashedul Haque said that the boat from Burirhat sank around 11 am due to strong currents in the river while the boat was heading towards Sitabkhan.

Krishna Chandra, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Rajarhat Police Station, said the boat carrying 40 people sank in the river after hitting a portion of an embankment.

According to him, almost all passengers swam ashore albeit 10 others were going missing.

Local sources, however, said 30 of the passengers managed to swim ashore while the remaining ones from among the pool of passengers went missing. The boat sank while it was crossing the river from Kheya Ghat near Burirhart Embankment around 12pm, the locals said.

Divers of the Fire Service & Civil Defence department were conducting operations in search of the missing passengers.

Thousands of people, including a number of the relatives of those missing, have gathered on the river bank.