The death toll of a ferry that capsized in Lake Victoria on Thursday has reached 223 as search and rescue operations were to be halted later in the day, authorities said.
A total of 223 bodies have been recovered between Thursday and Sunday morning, Isack Kamwelwe, minister for Works, Transport and Communications, told Xinhua over phone.
"We are still searching for more bodies before we halt the recovery operations later today," said Kamwelwe, adding that the operations will be halted after the ferry was pulled out of the waters from one of Africa's great lakes.
A team of experts from the Tanzania People's Defense Forces (TPDF) and police force arrived at Ukara Islet, the scene of the accident, on Saturday night to pull out the ferry using state-of-the-art equipment from TPDF, said Kamwelwe.
He said that 199 out of the 223 bodies have been identified by relatives and collected for burial.
"Bodies that will not be identified will be buried today (Sunday) by the government at a ceremony to be officiated by Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa," said Kamwelwe.
One survivor, who was rescued on Saturday morning and identified by Kamwelwe as Alphonce Charahani, a ferry engineer who was among the passengers, was in critical condition and doctors are fighting to save his life.
On Friday, Tanzanian President John Magufuli announced a four-day mourning period for the victims of the ferry accident.
According to sources, the ferry, with a capacity of 101 passengers and 25 tons of cargo, capsized at around 1 p.m. local time (1000) Thursday.
Magufuli also ordered the arrest of safety inspectors from the Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Authority, the country's transport regulator.
Preliminary investigations showed that the state-owned ferry, overloaded with more than 200 passengers, was being manned by someone who was not the authorized captain of the vessel.
The last major ferry accident on Lake Victoria occurred in 1996 in the same region, killing at least 500 people.
