'It's a disaster, no one expected that,' said a young man who had just managed to reach the shore.
There was an outpouring of grief among residents who only this year resumed the annual festivities on the banks of the Tigris after the northern city's recapture from the Islamic State group.
The accident, which struck as the overloaded vessel turned back, also coincided with Mother's Day in Iraq. "The boat sank because there were too many passengers on board," another security official based in Mosul told AFP.Iraq's justice ministry said it had ordered the arrest of nine ferry company officials and banned the owners of the vessel and the tourist site from leaving the country.
Search operations stretched far downstream from the site where the boat sank, according to an AFP journalist. Photos of victims, many of them women and children, were posted on the walls of a morgue for families unable to enter because of the large crowd who had gathered to identify their relatives.In shock, he gasped:"It's my wife", before collapsing in tears.
"It was carrying too many passengers, so the water began to rush onboard and the ferry became heavier and overturned," he said."With my own eyes I saw dead children in the water."
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