BAGHDAD, March 21 (Xinhua) -- At least 55 bodies were recovered and 30 people rescued Thursday after a ferry sank in Tigris River in northern city of Mosul, the Iraqi Health Ministry said.
"The civil defense teams so far recovered 55 bodies of victims of the sinking ferry in the Tigris River in the city of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad," Sayf al-Badr, spokesman of the ministry, said in a statement.
Al-Badr said the civil defense teams also rescued 30 people, noting that most of the victims were women and children.
Earlier in the day, a civil defense source said that dozens of people, mostly children and women, drowned in the Tigris River when a ferry, owned by a tourist office of an island in the river, sank.
Overloaded with more than 100 people, the ferry originally was designed to carry some 30 people, the source said, adding that an investigation was launched into the incident.
The civil defense, police and civilians are still searching for more victims in the river, the source added.
