KARACHI, March 2: Five members of a family drowned when a boat capsized in the sea, about two nautical miles from the beach on Sunday evening. A Pakistan Air Force (PAF) patrol boat rescued 20 others.

It was carrying 26 picnickers and two crew members.

The boat, belonging to a private operator, had been hired by three families who had organised a joint picnic. They had set off just before sunset when a leak occurred and the boat capsized.

“We were planning to return when we saw water gushing in but the crew brushed aside our concerns and said ‘it’s nothing unusual.’ But when a huge wave hit the boat, it overturned,” said Mohammad Ishrat, guardian of one of the families

Officials said a PAF training boat from the Korangi Creek Air Base was on a routine exercise when it spotted some people around the sinking boat and shouting for help.

“We sent four more boats following a distress call from our boat,” said Base Commander Air Commodore Khalid Farooq Chisti.

“We brought 25 people to our base and we found that five of them had died. We are now looking for three missing persons.”

The victims of the accident were identified as Saleem, Sanjeeda Khatoon, Noorun Nisa, her daughter Bushra and son Arshaman.

Volunteers from the Edhi Foundation, Maritime Security Agency, Karachi Port Trust and the city government were jointly searching for two women and a 12-year-old boy at the time of the filing of this report.