A ferryboat crowded with flood-hit villagers capsized in India's northeastern state of Assam, killing at least 10 people Sunday, police and officials said.  

Five other people were missing after the boat overturned and sank in the Morigaon district of Assam, said a district police chief.

Ten bodies had been pulled out, said an official at the nearby state-run Hindustan Paper Corp.

There were about 54 people on board. Among those on the boat were 10 teenage boys, children of workers at the paper factory, who had volunteered to distribute food and relief material to villages. The bodies of two of the boys were among those recovered.

Rescue operations were underway, with the participation of soldiers.