Anantapur: The bodies of 13 persons, including five children and seven women, were pulled out of the irrigation tank YT Cheruvu in Guntakal mandal on Friday after the fishing boat they were travelling in capsized in the middle of the irrigation tank.

Rescue teams managed to rescue a three-year-old girl and four others. The relative of one of the victims had a cardiac arrest on hearing the news.

Close relatives of YT Cheruvu area had attended a function for the erection of a dwajastambam at Lord Sriram temple in the village.

Later, 18 persons, including women and children, boarded a fishing boat and were rowed onto the YT Cheruvu tank, which was filled with HNSS water recently.

The small boat had a capacity of around seven and was clearly overloaded. After proceeding for about 10 metres, the boat capsized. All those on board were expert swimmers but they got stuck in the silt and mud in the tank and could not break free.

Other villagers tried to mount a rescue operation but came up with three dead bodies. Rescue teams that arrived later retrieved another 10 bodies from the tank. A search is on for the missing others.

The victims were residents of Guntakal, Rajapuram, Gandhinagar and YT Cheruvu. The bodies were shifted to Guntakal hospital for post-mortem. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and ministers Kamineni Srinivas, Kaluva Srinivasulu and Paritala Sunitha expressed their shock at the mishap.