A BOAT ferrying at least 80 people home from a party sank in Brazil’s Amazon region, killing at least 15 and leaving dozens missing, according to rescue officials and Brazil’s government.

The wooden Comandante Sales ferryboat capsized in a pre-dawn rainstorm Sunday on the Solimoes River, one of the Amazon’s largest tributaries, said Fire Lt. Col. Raimundo Rodrigues da Silva.

It was unclear how many passengers the Comandante Sales was authorized to carry, but authorities said the ferry had been grounded several months ago after failing an inspection. Boats serve as buses in the area because there are few roads.

Rescue workers had recovered the bodies of 15 people by Sunday evening when the search was called off for the night, according to Agencia Brasil, the government’s official news agency. Revelers had rented the boat to travel from their small river town to another for a party, Brazilian media reported.

In another sea accident in South Korea, at least nine people were killed and 14 others injured Sunday after being swept away by a sudden large wave that crashed over a breakwater on the nation’s west coast, the Coast Guard said.

(SD-Agencies)