Tanzania declares 4 days of national mourning over ferry tragedy

Tanzanian President John Magufuli on Friday declared four days of national mourning following a deadly ferry accident on Lake Victoria in which at least 136 people died.

"I have decided to declare four days of national mourning starting today," he said in an address on TBC One public television, in which he updated an earlier death toll of 136 dead.

Dozens more bodies were recovered on Friday, the morning after a Tanzanian ferry disaster, nearly doubling the death toll to 16, with hundreds more feared missing as rescuers resumed searching for survivors at first light.

Tanzania has been hit by several major ferry disasters over the years. At least 500 people were killed when a ferry capsized in Lake Victoria in 1996. In 2012, 145 people died when a ferry sank off the shore of Tanzania's Indian Ocean archipelago of Zanzibar.

(With inputs from news agencies)