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 told AFP 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.
-AFP/fl
Scores missing after ferry sinks in Bangladesh: officials
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Scores missing after ferry sinks in Bangladesh: officials
