KAMPALA, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Uganda has ended the search and rescue operations for the last weekend tragic boat accident on Lake Victoria, a police spokesperson said here Saturday.
Zurah Ganyana, the search and rescue operations police spokesperson, told Xinhua by telephone that the joint police and military marines units late on Friday carried out a final search of the accident scene and the ill-fated vessel that capsized last Saturday near Mutima Island in the central district of Mukono.
"We did the final search and we didn't find anything. We had to call off the operations. We ended it yesterday (Friday)," said Ganyana.
"We did what we were supposed to do. We searched for those who were on board. We recovered 32 dead bodies and rescued 27 survivors," she added.
The police spokesperson said investigations are ongoing to establish the cause of the tragedy, which has been blamed on overcrowding, the vessel's poor mechanical condition and bad weather.
"We (rescue teams) have done our work. We have left the other part for investigators to do their work," said Ganyana.
Earlier, police and military reports had put the figure of bodies retrieved at 35 and 27 people rescued. Local media reported that there were 120 people on board of the ill-fated boat.
The rescue teams on Thursday pulled out the wreckage of the boat.
