The vessel, a canoe, was carrying 37 people across the River Shire when the incident occurred.
A one-year-old child died and 23 people were reported missing and feared dead after a hippo entered and capsized a canoe on a river in southern Malawi, authorities said.
Police in the South African country’s southern Nsanje district said on Tuesday the vessel was carrying 37 people across the River Shire when the incident occurred Monday morning.
Malawian police rescued 13 with the help of World Food Program personnel working in the area and provided boats for the rescue operation, Nsanje district police commissioner Dominic Mwandira said.
Nsanje police spokeswoman Agnes Zalakoma said rescuers also retrieved the lifeless body of a one-year-old who had drowned in the collision, she said.
“The search mission to locate the missing persons is currently underway,” Zalakoma said, adding that the canoe began to list and eventually capsize after the hippo collided with it.
Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera sent Water and Sanitation Minister Abida Mia to the scene. She said locals said her hippos often caused trouble in the area and they wanted authorities to relocate some of the animals.
The Shire is Malawi’s largest river.
Boating accidents are common in Malawi, where the lack of regular water transportation forces many to cross lakes and rivers in sometimes rickety boats, in the absence of regulations.
At least five people were killed last month after an overcrowded boat sank in Malawi’s central Mchinji district.