The engineer was found near the engine of the upturned vessel, Mwanza regional commissioner John Mongella said on Saturday.

It is understood he shut himself inside the engine room when the vessel turned over on Thursday.

But despite that rescue, officials said search efforts on the ferry are now ending so work can focus on identifying the 209 bodies found so far.

Families of victims have gathered at the scene to claim the dead.

It is not known how many people were on board the overloaded ferry, which had a capacity of 101, when it capsized on the final stretch before shore on Thursday afternoon as passengers prepared to disembark.

President John Magufuli has ordered the arrests of those responsible for what he called a "great disaster for our nation".

Pope Francis, the United Nations secretary-general, Russian President Vladimir Putin and a number of African leaders have expressed shock and sorrow.

Accidents are often reported on the large freshwater lake surrounded by Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

Some of the deadliest have occurred in Tanzania, where ageing passenger ferries often carry hundreds of passengers, well beyond capacity.

In 1996, more than 800 people died when passenger and cargo ferry MV Bukoba sank on Lake Victoria.

Nearly 200 people died in 2011 when the MV Spice Islander I sank off Tanzania's Indian Ocean coast near Zanzibar.

Australian Associated Press