At least 15 people dead after ferry overturns in Zimbabwe's Lake Kariba

Search and rescue operations were underway on Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba on Tuesday after a ferry capsized in bad weather.

At least 15 people were confirmed dead, authorities say, and 77 people were rescued. But Zimbabwe’s Civil Protection Unit says the exact number of passengers on board is unknown.

The boat has a capacity of 90 passengers and five crew. But ticketing receipts show that 114 adults were aboard, with an unknown number of children below ticketing age.

Helicopters, boats and divers were at the scene to help the rescue effort but their arrival was reportedly delayed by the weather.

A witness said the boat left in the morning in bad weather and may have been hit by a wave, causing its engines to switch off.

The ferry operates between the northern town of Kariba and several islands and fishing camps on the lake.

Kariba is shared by Zimbabwe and Zambia. It is the largest man-made lake in the world by volume and was created in the late 1950s and early 1960s by building a dam wall to block the Zambezi River, resulting in a valley slowly filling with water to form a huge lake that's now more than 200 kilometres long and up to 40 kilometres wide in places.