Over 20 people including primary school children and a female hospital employee perished on Wednesday when a boat carrying more than 40 people sank while crossing the Nile in northern Sudan, state news agency SUNA said.

Civil defence forces were searching the waters for the bodies of the missing children, the agency added. A female hospital employee also drowned.

It said the boat’s engine failed in a high current while it was crossing the river to a school in Kabna, a small village in northern Sudan. The woman was identified as a hospital employee in the village.