Four teenagers were rescued while six remained missing as a boat capsized in Khushab’s Noorpur Thal tehsil on Tuesday, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA).

According to a statement from the Punjab PDMA spokesperson, the rescue team immediately reached the location and began searching for the teenagers, who were all said to be between 14 and 16-years-old.

“Four youths have been rescued and the search for the rest is on,” the statement said.

It added that Punjab PDMA Director General Irfan Ali Kathia also contacted Khushab Deputy Commissioner Zeeshan Shabbir Rana and directed the district administration to speed up the operation.

“Strict legal action should be taken against those who put youth on the boat without life jackets,” the statement quoted DG Kathia as saying.

All of the teenagers belonged to the rural village of Pelowaince.

Mass drownings are common in Pakistan when aged and overloaded vessels lose their stability and pitch passengers into the water.

In April, eight persons drowned when a boat capsized in the Indus River near Kund Park in the Nowshera district on the second day of Eidul Fitr.

Separately, a woman and five children were killed after a boat ferrying them across a swollen river capsized in Indian-held Kashmir.

Six members of a family — two women and four children — drowned in the Jhelum near Malakwal Town of Mandi Bahauddin district in May.