Twenty people, including children, drowned when a boat sank during a river crossing in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province on Saturday, a provincial official said.

"A boat with women and children on board sank on Saturday morning at 0230 GMT in the river in the Basawul area of Momand Dara district" of eastern Nangarhar, said Quraishi Badloon, the head of the province's information department, in a post on social media platform X. 

He said five people survived the accident, the cause of which is being investigated.

The Nangarhar Information and Culture Department stated that authorities had sent a medical team and ambulances to the area, in a message shared with the media.

At least five bodies have been recovered, and efforts are underway to find the others, provincial government officials said.