Death toll in Bangladesh ferry sinking reaches 14

USPA News - Rescue workers on Saturday pulled twelve more bodies from a ferry boat that capsized and sank near the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka on Friday, raising the total death toll to fourteen, police said. Five other people are still believed to be missing.

The accident occurred early Friday morning at around 8 a.m. local time when the ferry was struck by a vessel carrying sand on the Meghna River near the town of Gazaria in Gazaria upazila of Munshiganj district. The site of the accident is around 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Dhaka, the country`s capital. The ferry, MV SM Sarash, had left Narayanganj near Dhaka at around 7 a.m. local time with approximately 70 passengers on board. Police said many of the passengers were able to swim ashore but nineteen people remained missing. Two bodies were pulled from the water on Friday as salvage vessel MV Rustom was deployed to carry out search-and-rescue operations for the sixteen people who remained missing. Deputy commissioner Munshiganj Mohamad Saiful Islam Badal said divers recovered an additional ten bodies on early Saturday morning, and two more bodies were recovered after the sunken ferry was salvaged. The rescue operation ended at around 10 a.m. local time on Saturday when the death toll stood at fourteen, leaving the five others missing and presumed dead. The fatalities were identified as eight adults and six children, with the youngest being just 17 months old. Ferry and boat accidents happen frequently in Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation which is criss-crossed by more than 250 rivers. In March 2012, at least 147 people were killed when a Dhaka-bound ferry capsized after being struck by a cargo vessel on the Meghna River in central Bangladesh.