- Red Cross: Rescuers pluck at least 150 people from the choppy waters
- It's unclear how many passengers were onboard
- Ferries in the region often carry passengers not included in the manifest
(CNN) -- A ferry with hundreds onboard sank off the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, authorities said Thursday, killing at least 15 people in the latest capsizing in months in the popular tourist destination.
Rescuers plucked at least 150 people from the choppy waters before they postponed the search at nightfall Wednesday, said Raymond Kanyambo, a spokesman for the Tanzanian Red Cross.
It's unclear how many passengers were onboard, but the ferry has a capacity of about 200 people, he said.
Ferries in the region often carry passengers not included in the manifest, making it hard to pinpoint the exact number of people onboard.
The ferry was traveling between the Tanzanian commercial capital of Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, the Indian Ocean archipelago popular with tourists for its pristine sandy beaches.
Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania.
The capsizing Wednesday is the latest such disaster in Zanzibar in less than a year.
More than 200 people perished when a crowded ferry traveling between two islands of Zanzibar sank in September. In that incident, the ferry had a capacity of about 600 passengers, but was carrying more than 1,000 people.
Tanzanian authorities charged five men with negligence in the September capsizing, including the owner of the ferry and the captain.
CNN's Karen Smith and Faith Karimi contributed to this report
