Bangladesh ferry disaster: Overcrowding blamed, dozens killed

Boat overloaded with Hindu pilgrims capsized on Sunday, with the dying toll rising to 61 and plenty of passengers nonetheless lacking.

Authorities in Bangladesh have blamed overcrowding for the sinking of a ferry that has killed no less than 61 individuals, with many passengers nonetheless lacking two days after the catastrophe.

A five-member committee is investigating Sunday’s accident, with preliminary reviews suggesting the boat was carrying almost thrice its capability, stated Jahurul Islam, chief administrator of the northern district of Panchagarh.

“Divers are trying to find extra our bodies as some are nonetheless lacking,” he stated, including that the our bodies of 28 ladies and 18 kids have been recovered to date.

The small boat filled with Hindu devotees on their technique to a preferred temple flipped over within the Karatoya River as onlookers watched in horror from the shore close to Boda city in Panchagarh.

Police stated that whereas among the passengers managed to swim ashore or have been rescued, about 10 have been nonetheless lacking. Passengers stated greater than 80 individuals have been on board.

Boda police chief Sujay Kumar Roy stated rescue employees, together with firefighters, navy divers and villagers, have been trying to find miles downstream on the river.

Onlookers and family of the lacking gathered alongside the riverbank as rescuers looked for our bodies, witnesses stated.

“I simply wish to see the face of my mom,” Deepak Chandra Roy stated, talking by tears as he looked for his mom.

“Three ladies of my household have been lacking because the boat capsized,” stated one distraught relative, Bikash Chandra. “We discovered one within the morning round 10am, who was rescued earlier. However I couldn’t discover the opposite two but.”

The dying toll was the worst for a maritime catastrophe within the nation since 2015, when no less than 78 individuals died after an overcrowded ferry collided with a cargo vessel in a river west of the capital, Dhaka.

Dozens of individuals die every year in ferry accidents in Bangladesh, a low-lying nation that has intensive inland waterways and lax security requirements.

At the very least 26 individuals died in Could after an overcrowded speedboat collided with a sand-laden bulk provider and sank on the Padma River.

Final December, some 40 individuals perished when a packed three-storey ferry caught fireplace in southern Bangladesh.

A ferry sank in Dhaka in June 2020 after a collision with one other vessel, killing no less than 32 individuals. In the meantime, in 2015, no less than 78 individuals perished when an overcrowded ship collided with a cargo vessel in a river west of the capital.