LUCKNOW: Two children and a woman were drowned in Yamuna river while 12 others went missing after a boat carrying them capsized in Marka police station area of Banda district on Thursday.
Police said that as many as 25-30 passengers on board the ill fated boat wers going to Jarauli Ghat in Fatehpur district from Marka area on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.
15 persons were also rescued by joint teams of police and state disaster relief force (SDRF).
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over deaths and directed the district administration to immediately reach the spot and carry out rescue and relief work.
CM also directed DM, DIG, NDRF and SDRF units to go to the spot for rescue operations and to provide proper treatment.

DIG, Chitrakoot Dham Range, Vipin Mishra who also reached the spot to supervise the rescue operations, told TOI, “Babu Nishad, a baotman, in his statement to the police said that around 25-30 residents of Marka were going to Fatehpur on his boat crossing river Yamuna, when his oar used for rowing the boat broke, it capsized.”

Later, locals raised an alarm on which police teams along with SDRF arrived and pressed divers into service, who saved 15 persons while bodies of a woman and two children were also recovered whose identities were yet to be ascertained.
A 10 member squad of divers, four boatmen were searching for missing others, till last reports came in.