At least 22 students drowned on Wednesday when a boat carrying more than 40 children sank while crossing the Nile in northern Sudan, state news agency SUNA said. The children were on their way to school.

Civil defence forces were searching the waters for the missing passengers but had not recovered the bodies, the agency added. A female hospital employee also drowned.

The vessel went down around 750 kilometres north of the capital Khartoum. SUNA says the boat sank because of a technical failure.