Three villagers were confirmed dead and another five remained missing after they fell into a river in east China's Jiangxi Province while watching a rowing race on Sunday, the traditional Dragon Boat Festival.

The eight were in a merrymaking crowd on the bank of a river in Tonggubao village of Wuni town in the county of Yugan when they slipped at around 5 p.m., the county's safety administration said Monday.

Witnesses said the river bank had become muddy and slipper after rain.

The Jiangxi provincial government has ordered all-out search and rescue efforts, and has sent an emergency taskforce consisting of doctors, public security personnel and safety officials to the site.

The Dragon Boat Festival, known in Chinese as Duanwu, falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. It features dragon boat race and eating of zongzi, an angular glutinous rice ball wrapped in reed or bamboo leaves.

(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2008)