AN official says there is no hope for more than 80 people still missing a day after a ferry sank off the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar.
The vessel, which was officially carrying 291 passengers, including more than 30 children, went down in choppy waters off Zanzibar after leaving Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam on Wednesday.

Officials said emergency workers had rescued 146 people and recovered 62 bodies.

But there was now little hope of saving more people, Zanzibar police spokesman Mohamed Mhina said, raising the prospect that up to 145 people have died.

"Search operations continue but it is now almost impossible survivors will be found," he told reporters.

"The ship has completely sunk. There were 290 people on board."

"This tragedy affects all of us, and the pain and suffering of those affected is the pain and suffering that we feel," Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said in a statement.

Two foreign tourists were initially reported to be among the dead, but hospital administrator Omari Abdallan said so far only one "body of a white person" was in the morgue.