Patna: At least nine persons - all of them women or children - died in two incidents in the Ganga and Kareh rivers in Vaishali and Samastipur districts respectively on Sunday.

The Vaishali incident occurred around noon when 11 people from two families from Mirzapur village under Fatuha police station in Patna district had gone to an island in the Ganga, near Bahrampur Mastan Ghat under Rustampur police outpost, on a picnic. "They were bathing when a couple of them started drowning. The others tried to save them, but they too lost their footing," said Patna district magistrate (DM) Sanjay Kumar Agarwal. "We have recovered six bodies. Two persons are still missing. Three persons were rescued."

State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel were deployed and divers were trying to locate those missing.

The Samastipur incident, in which three women died, happened around 9am at Madhurapur near Dharmapur Ghat in Shivaji Nagar block when several people were crossing the Kareh, a branch of the Bagmati river, on a boat.

"The people were crossing to the other side for farming when the boat capsized," said Samastipur district magistrate Pranav Kumar.

Nine persons were either rescued by local residents or swam to safety. Chief minister Nitish Kumar has announced Rs 4 lakh compensation per death in both incidents.