Madagascar shipwreck death toll rises to 85

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar — A shipwreck off the coast of Madagascar this week has claimed 85 lives, maritime officials said Thursday, after retrieving 21 more bodies a day earlier to add to the initial death toll of 64.

Maritime authorities said 138 people were on the 12-foot-long boat carrying cargo which sank on Monday, adding that only 50 had been rescued.

The dead include five children.

The wooden vessel, a cargo boat not authorized to carry passengers, had set off from the village of Antseraka for Soanierana-Ivongo, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) to the south.

Initial investigations suggested the vessel's engine had a "technical problem," according to Adrien Fabrice Ratsimbazafy of the River and Maritime Port Agency (APMF). — Agence France-Presse