Rescuers are searching for nine people missing after a boat sank on a river in southwest China's Guizhou Province Tuesday, local authorities said.

The accident took place at about 10:10 a.m. on the Qingshui River near the Bayi Village in the Liuchuan Township of the Jianhe County, said Liao Chaoyuan, head of the Publicity Department of the Jianhe County Communist Party of China Committee.

A total of 40 people were on board, on their way to a fair held in a nearby village when the accident happened. So far, 31 have been pulled out of the water, Liao said.

He suggested overloading might have triggered the sinking.

The boat has a registered capacity of 18 people, but it actually carried 22 more people, he said.

Local authorities are investigating the cause of the accident.

(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2009)