26 dead, scores missing in Bangladesh boat sinking

A scuba driver takes part in rescue operations after a boat capsized near the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. At least 26 people, mostly women and children, drowned and scores of others were missing after a passenger river ferry sank in eastern Bangladesh on Thursday, police said. Passengers were asleep on the ferry when it hit the wreck of a cargo ship that sank a few days ago in the river Meghna at Sarail, 90 kilometres (55 miles) from Dhaka, local police officer Abbas Uddin said. "We have now found 26 bodies," Uddin told AFP by phone from the site of the accident, adding that the death toll would rise as divers continued the recovery operation. "It is a heart-breaking scene. Relatives of the victims are crying as we hand over the bodies. The families of those who are still missing are waiting anxiously on the river banks," he said. "There are more bodies trapped in the ferry. The divers are bringing them up now," he said, adding that the total number of passengers on the boat was not known. A team of divers from Dhaka was also scouring the river to look for bodies, while more divers were on their way from the capital, he said."More bodies will come out. One body was pulled out now while I was talking to you," Brahminbaria district administrator Abdul Mannan told AFP by phone.At least 60 people on the overloaded double-decker ferry swam to shore, police said. Boat accidents due to lax safety standards and overloading are common in Bangladesh, which is criss-crossed by 230 rivers.Some 37 people drowned in December last year when a passenger ferry hit a cargo ship and sank.At least 85 people drowned in November when an overloaded triple-decker ferry capsized off Bhola Island in the country's south. A week later another boat sank leaving 46 people dead. So far this year, dozens of people have been killed in several smaller boat accidents in Bangladesh. Naval officials have said more than 95 percent of Bangladesh's hundreds of thousands of small- and medium-sized boats do not meet minimum safety regulations. But millions of people in Bangladesh rely on boats and ferries to travel to the capital or the delta nation's major cities.