Peru Local media reports that at least 12 people are dead and about 50 more are missing after a landslide hit two boats that were docked at a river port in the Amazon rainforest area.

According to a police report published by the Andina news agency, the landslide sank a ferry and seriously wrecked another passenger ship that was carrying dozens of people.

It occurred at approximately 05.00 local time (10.00 GMT) when passengers were to offload at Iparia, the central Ucayali region of the country, on 1st December.

The wounded are in a hospital, and the national police and Peruvian Navy are searching for more survivors. Children are feared to be among the missing.

According to the country’s National Emergency Operations Center, the landslide was the result of erosion of the bank of the river Ucayali, the headwater of the Amazon.

News agency AFP reported that there were some 50 people on board one of the boats.

The river waters are flowing at a rapid pace, which has hampered rescue operations, a navy official told AFP.

Among the traveling passengers, there were children, teachers, and doctors, the Reuters news agency reports, citing Andina.

The police are also cooperating with the families assembled at the disaster location in an attempt to figure out the precise number of people who remain missing.

Local media reported that one of the boats had left Pucallpa in the north on Sunday and was heading to the riverside settlements of Caco Macaya, Curiaca del Caco, and Pueblo Nuevo del Caco.