Rescue workers recover the body of a victim after a ferry accident at Paturia, some 70kms east of Dhaka, on Sunday. Rescuers are still searching for missing passengers after a ferry collided with a cargo ship and sank on the river Padma.
Reuters/Dhaka
At least 39 people died in Bangladesh on Sunday when a passenger ferry capsized after colliding with a trawler on the river Padma with more than 100 people aboard, police said.
Rescuers managed to save at least 50 passengers and were still searching for more survivors, regional police official Bidhan Tripura told Reuters.
Low-lying Bangladesh, with extensive inland waterways and slack safety standards, suffers regular ferry disasters, with deaths sometimes running into the hundreds.
The 39 bodies retrieved so far from the water include a baby, Tripura said. Police have seized the trawler and arrested two of its crew, he said.
Another police team, assisted by firemen and the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, is trying to salvage the ferry, he said.
Divers were also trying to retrieve any bodies trapped inside the vessel, he said.
The ferry was heading to Paturia from Daulatdia in Rajbari, located on the opposite bank of the river and 136 km northwest of Dhaka.
Shajahan Khan, the shipping minister, told reporters at the scene that an investigation had been launched.
"A probe committee has been formed and they have been directed to find out the real cause of this sad incident within seven days," he said.
A similar accident on February 13 killed at least seven passengers in southern Bangladesh.