(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-27 14:16

NANNING-- One person is dead and eight others are missing after a boat carrying sugarcane across a reservoir capsized in strong winds Monday in Laibin City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Sixteen farmers from the villages of Wangduo and Longbao, in Xiangzhou Township of Xiangzhou County, rented a fishing boat to carry sugarcane across the reservoir, with one man surnamed Qin from Wangduo Village as the captain, said Liao Guifu, a spokesman for Xiangzhou County Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The farmers loaded the boat with about 15 tons of sugarcane and were about to return home. The boat, which has a load capacity of 20 tons, however, encountered strong winds midway and sank at about 2:00 p.m..

Three women and four men managed to reach the shoreline, but the remainder, all women, went missing.

Rescuers found one body around midnight.

The search is continuing and the local government is leading an investigation into the cause of the accident.