At least 69 people have died after a passenger boat carrying more than 200 people capsized off the coast of Djibouti in east Africa, according to reports.

The accident occurred at around midday, according to an adviser to the Djiboutian President, Ismail Omar Guelleh, quoted by the Associated Press news agency.

"There were many dead," said Ismael Tani, who said the boat was carrying passengers to a festival when it capsized in the main harbour of the small Red Sea country. Mr Tani said the boat, which capsized in calm seas under blue skies, "was probably overloaded."

Khaled Haidar, an Information Ministry official, told the AFP news agency, that the accident was likely due to an "imbalance" that occurred because the vessel had little or no cargo and was carrying a large number of people above-deck.

Witnesses said many of the passengers were travelling to the northern Djibouti town of Tadjourah for a religious festival due to take place on Friday.

Mohammed Said Median, director of emergency services at the Tapelletier Hospital where most of the victims were brought, told AFP that 69 people had died, 20 were missing and 36 were injured. Around 80 people had escaped without injury, he said.

The French Ambassador to Djibouti, Jean-Paul Angelier, said the death toll remained unclear but added that the rescue operation was being assisted by soldiers from the French military base in the state, a former French colony.

A spokesman for the US base in Djibouti, a facility for operations in the Gulf, said that the US military "called and asked if they needed any assistance from us".

"The only assistance they asked for was for our divers to go to their Djibouti navy headquarters," Captain Bob Everdeen told Reuters.

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