Toll in Bangladesh ferry sinking rises to 123

PanARMENIAN.Net - The death toll from a ferry sinking in Bangladesh rose to 123 on Thursday, March 15 as rescue workers found 11 more bodies floating on the Meghna river, two days after the disaster, police said, according to AFP.

Boats scouring the water found the bodies as the search continued for several people still missing after the ferry sank in the early hours of Tuesday when it was hit by an oil barge, district police chief Shahabuddin Khan said.

"We suspect the 11 are those who jumped from the ill-fated vessel at the time of the accident but found the river was too big to cross by swimming. The death toll is now 123," he told AFP.

The packed Shariatpur 1 vessel, carrying about 200 passengers, sank rapidly after the collision in the dark about 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of the capital Dhaka.

Khan said police downstream had been ordered to monitor the river, which empties into the Bay of Bengal, as bodies could have been washed away by strong currents.

He added that relatives of several missing people have gathered on the river bank for a third day.

Emergency workers on Wednesday completed their search of the double-decker ferry after it was raised from the river bed and pulled to the shore.

It was Bangladesh's worst ferry disaster in more than seven years. In February 2005, 149 people were killed when a ferry sank in the Buriganga river on the outskirts of Dhaka.

Boats are the main form of travel in Bangladesh's remote rural areas and accidents are common due to lax safety standards and overloading.