Boat carrying 110 people sinks in Brazilian Amazon; at least 12 dead

SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Rescue workers on Monday found two more bodies near the site where a boat ferrying people home from a religious festival sank in Brazil's Amazon region. The discovery raised the death toll to 17, with dozens still missing.

Authorities don't know how many people were aboard when the boat sank on Sunday because it didn't have a passenger list, but it may have been carrying more than 100 passengers and as many as 30 could still be missing, said Navy Lt. Lenilton Arauju.

Some may have survived after swimming to shore, but haven't managed to get in touch with authorities because of bad communications in the remote area about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the jungle city of Manaus, Arauju said.

The Comandante Sales ferryboat, which had been rented to carry people and from a religious festival, capsized in a pre-dawn rainstorm on the Solimoes River, one of the Amazon's largest tributaries.

Authorities believe the torrential rain could have been a factor in the accident, but are also investigating whether too many passengers were aboard wooden, two-story craft, Arauju said.

The Navy issued a statement saying the boat had been ordered not to travel following an inspection in January because it lacked the proper paperwork and a qualified crew, the official Agencia Brasil news agency reported.

Brazilian media reported that Sunday's voyage was its first after being relaunched. Boats serve as buses in the area because there are few roads.

In February, a two-story wooden ferry carrying more than 100 people collided with a barge loaded with fuel tanks on the Amazon River, killing 16.

In March, a similar boat carrying 12 tourists and a crew of 10 on a wetlands fishing trip sank in the Pantanal area in Mato Grosso state south of the Amazon, killing nine.