Rescuers recovered seven bodies after a ferry moored at the lakeside town of Goma in eastern Congo capsized and sank as passengers rushed aboard to escape a heavy downpour, officials said yesterday.

As many as 100 people were feared perished when the MV Musaka sank Thursday evening, Jean-Pierre Lola, an official in the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy, or RCD, which control Goma and its surrounding region.

The weight of luggage already on board, as well as that of passengers and well-wishers who scrambled to get out of the rain, for exceeded the capacity of the vessel, Moise Nyarugabo, another RCD official, said by telephone.

"People jumped off the boat and others swam to safety or were rescued before the vessel sunk

completely," he said.

But the victims were not quick enough to get off and many remain trapped inside the vessel, which can carry between 100 and 150 passengers, Lola said. His group lacked the necessary equipment to mount a proper rescue operation, he added.

Rescue workers were busy trying to moor the sunken ferry to prevent it from being dragged into deeper water by currents sweeping lake Kivu, one of a string of volcanic lakes that stretches along Congo's eastern border.

The ferry was scheduled to sail to Bukavu at the southern end of the lake.

Ferries are the most common and cheapest means of transportation between the two lakeside towns in a country whose infrastructure has been destroyed by a succession of armed rebellions and neglect by corrupt and greedy leaders.