At least five people are reported missing after a canoe sank on Monday in the Inhassunge district of Zambezia province in central Mozambique.

According to the Zambézia Maritime Administrator, the boat was carrying a total of eight fishermen, three of whom have already been rescued, who were leaving the town of Mitange for Quelimane in a canoe.

"They were approached by the local community fishing council, but they didn't want to comply with the information. On the way, they came across a conflicting system that creates whirlpools and the boat couldn't resist," Augusto Dongo explained to the media, quoted by Lusa.

The authorities point to bad weather as the probable cause of the accident and say that search operations have been stepped up.

"It's still possible to find the people alive. They may have swum to an area similar to an island, without having contact with the mainland. That's why we're stepping up operations," said Augusto Dongo.

On Monday, in the north of the country, another boat sank, killing three of the more than 20 people on board in the district of Moma, in Nampula province.

In addition to overcrowding, bad weather is also pointed out by the authorities as one of the causes of the shipwreck in Nampula, where at least three people are still missing, Abacar Chande, administrator of the Moma district, told Lusa.