17 drown after two dragon boats capsize

Seventeen people died after two dragon boats capsized in a river in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on Saturday, the local government said on Sunday.

The two 18-meter-long dragon boats, with a total of 60 people on board, rolled over in the Taohua River in Guilin at around 1:40 pm, throwing 57 people into the water.

More than 700 people, including police and rescue workers, joined the search for survivors. After nine hours of searching, 40 people had been rescued. Seventeen others were confirmed dead. The 60 people on the two boats were all from Dunmu village near the river.