DHAKA: Scores of people were missing when a ferry carrying around 100 passengers sank after colliding with a sand barge on Bangladesh’s giant Meghna River on Friday, officials said.
About half the passengers managed to swim ashore and a search had been launched, said Mohammad Saiful Hassan Badal, administrator of Munshiganj district, where the accident happened.
The small vessel was ferrying passengers on the Meghna river, close to the town of Gazaria in the central Munshiganj district, at around 8:00 am (0200 GMT) when it collided with a barge laden with sand to be used for construction.
“So far we have gathered that the ferry was carrying around 100 people. A maximum 40 people are feared missing,” said a local police chief Jahangir Hossain. “We heard around 25 people have swum ashore,” he said.
DND
