PORT-AU-PRINCE – A ferry packed with passengers and cargo capsized Saturday off the coast of southeastern Haiti, leaving a two-year-old boy and four others dead and dozens missing, the local press reported.

The boat, which set off from Anse a Pitre, near the Dominican border, overturned near the coast of the southeastern district of Belle Anse while en route to the port city of Marigot.

“The boat was overloaded with people and that caused it to overturn,” Dhony Pierre, one of 15 survivors of the tragedy, told local reporters.

The boat capsized after being battered by strong winds and waves at a spot known as Rosse Pointe, near Belle Anse.

“We tried in vain to remove the water that quickly entered the boat,” said Pierre, who could not confirm the exact number of people on board the ferry.

Municipal authorities in Marigot and officials from the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti, known as Minustah, dispatched teams to the site of the accident.