Many missing as Bangladesh boat sinks
2013-02-08 10:25
Dhaka - Scores of people are missing after a ferry carrying around 100
passengers sank in a river in Bangladesh on Friday, officials said.
"So far we have gathered that the ferry was carrying around 100 people
and some have swum to the banks," local police chief Jahangir Hossain said
after the accident on the Meghna river in the central district of Munshiganj.
District administrator Saifuddin Badal said that more than 50 people were still
unaccounted for.
"We heard around 25 people have swum ashore," he told AFP.
Badal said the boat, named MV Sarosh, was carrying passengers from the
capital Dhaka to the southeastern district of Chandpur.
It was not immediately clear what caused the accident but Bangladesh has a
history of boating disasters as a result of lax safety standards and frequent
overloading of vessels.
Last March 147 people were killed after a passenger vessel sank in the
Meghna river after colliding with a cargo ship.
