18 women killed in Pak wedding boat capsize

At least 18 women drowned and dozens more people are missing after an overcrowded boat carrying a Pakistan wedding party capsized yesterday, officials said.

The boat was ferrying about 100 members of one family across the Indus river in a marriage procession between the villages of Machka and Kharor in the Sadiqabad subdistrict of Punjab province, according to police and local authorities.

Eighteen women were "confirmed dead" and 25 to 30 people "were either rescued by locals who live along the river or managed to swim ashore", according to Sadiqabad spokesman Rana Kashif Mehmood.

"Rescue teams are at the scene," he said.