Kolkata, Aug 4 (IANS): Three persons went missing after a boat capsized in the Hooghly river in West Bengal, the police said on Sunday.

According to the police, the incident occurred near the Mangal Pandey Ghat in North 24 Parganas district's Barrackpore on Saturday evening.

Six friends, all of them local residents, took away a boat forcefully from a boatman and went into the river. After the boat capsized, three of them managed to swim ashore near a jetty in Titagarh while three others went missing, the police said.

"A search operation by the disaster management personnel is underway, but nothing has been found so far. They are feared drowned.

"We have detained three of their friends to clarify what caused the boat to capsize suddenly. We will also talk to the boatman to find out whether he knew the boys from before. Finding out the three boys is the priority," an officer from the Barrackpore police station said.

"The boys were drinking on the boat in the middle of the river and were in an inebriated state when the accident happened," local sources claimed.