Eight more bodies were recovered Sunday from Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe, bringing the death toll from this week's ferry capsize to 80, police said.

The overloaded passenger ferry, operated by the government's Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA), capsized on Tuesday in rough waters - a rare accident on the vast lake on the border with Zambia, and one of the deadliest of its kind in the country's history.

"The death toll from the Kariba RIDA boat accident has now risen to 80, following the recovery of eight more bodies on August 16, 2026," police said in a statement.

On Saturday, search teams had already recovered 25 bodies, bringing the death toll to 72.

Police have not provided any details on the new victims, but most of the boat's passengers were villagers and fishmongers living around Lake Kariba, many of them from the Chalala fishing camp.

According to authorities, the ferry was authorized to carry 90 people but had 114 adults, five crew members and an undetermined number of children on board at the time of the tragedy.

Civil protection officials indicated on Wednesday that 77 people had been rescued. Adding this to the 80 bodies recovered so far, this could mean that the ship was carrying at least 157 people.

Authorities have not specified how many children were among the victims.

The ferry provided a vital link for rural communities living around the lake to the town of Kariba, located nearly 280 kilometers northwest of the capital, Harare.

Hundreds of people gathered on Saturday outside the Kariba district hospital, queuing to identify the bodies of their loved ones.