A ferry boat trying to land at a Niger River town in the Timbuktu region of northern Mali hit rocks and sank in an accident that left dozens of people dead.

Axar.az reports, citing AP, the accident took place Thursday at the town of Dire, officials said.

Local authorities had not yet released an official death toll, but regional resident and former National Assembly deputy Alkaidi Toure said Tuesday that 38 were killed and 23 survived.

Diré resident Moussa Ag Almoubarek Traoré said he lost 21 family member in the accident, and that he helped retrieve and tally the dead with local officials.

The boat was carrying families and farmers who had just harvested rice, witnesses said, arriving after nightfall when docking is banned due to security measures aimed at thwarting attacks by al Qaeda-linked militants in the region. But Traoré said the boat driver didn’t want to wait until morning and tried to come ashore in another location, where the boat hit rocks and sank.