Rescue workers say they have retrieved another nine bodies from a boat that capsized in northern Brazil, raising the death toll on Wednesday to 41 in one of the worst accidents in decades along the Amazon river system.
Rescuers expect to find still more bodies, said Deputy Fire Commander Col. Carlos Bacelar. Sixty passengers are known to have survived Sunday's accident on the Solimoes River, one of the Amazon's largest tributaries.
Bacelar said he feared some bodies may never be recovered because of piranhas and other flesh-eating fish in the river.
The two-story wooden ferry, the Comandante Sales had no passenger list, leaving the number of possible victims unclear, Bacelar said.
Passengers had been on their way home from a Roman Catholic festival. The cause of the accident is under investigation.
Boats, often carrying hundreds of people, serve as buses in remote, roadless riverside areas in Brazil.
Two of the boats capsized on the Amazon River in separate incidents in 1981, killing 530 people.
In February this year, a two-story wooden ferry carrying more than 100 people collided with a barge loaded with fuel tanks on the Amazon River, killing 16.
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