Six children reportedly drowned when a boat carrying 60 persons capsized on the River Volta in the Brong Ahafo Region on Sunday.

According to an eyewitness, the boat which was carrying passengers from Nantwekope to Yeji hit a tree stump in the middle of the journey and capsized.

The passengers were travelling to Yeji with their foodstuff to trade between Sunday and Tuesday.

The eyewitness said the passengers who could swim began helping other passengers to stay afloat after the boat capsized but they got tired and could not hold on for long.

'Swimming from that side to the shore is far. So the men gave up and perched by tree stumps for survival. I was on the boat with my wife, my mother and my children...I was only able to save my mother and my wife but I could not save my children,' the survivor told Joy News in Twi.

A rescue team arrived and his wife and mother and a number of passengers managed to get onto another boat and were transported ashore but the children died before help came, he said.

The team is still on the rescue mission as survivors believe more people may have died because some passengers are yet to be accounted for.

Early this month, a canoe meant for five carried 15 passengers - three times its capacity - and capsized on the lake leaving four dead.