8 dead as boat capsizes in Bangladesh

At least eight people, including three children, were killed after a trawler carrying 46 passengers collided with a sand-laden vessel and capsized in a branch of Padma River in Bangladesh

Dhaka: At least eight people, including three children, were killed after a trawler carrying 46 passengers collided with a sand-laden vessel and capsized in a branch of Padma River in Bangladesh, according to media reports. According to Louhajung Fire Service Station Officer Qais Ahmed, the accident occurred around 8.30 pm on Saturday in Munshiganj district.

“So far, we have recovered the bodies of eight people, and four of them have been sent to the local hospital. Two bodies, including a child, remain on the river bank,” the ”Dhaka Tribune” newspaper quoted Ahmed as saying. The Fire Service and Civil Defence resumed the rescue operation for the missing on Sunday morning after it was halted at around 2 am due to the weather and strong currents in the river. The dead could not be identified immediately. They include three children, two women and a man.

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Munshiganj Superintendent of Police Aslam Khan said the passengers from Sirajdikhan were on a daylong picnic on the boat, bdnews.com reported. They were returning home when the accident occurred. Most of them managed to swim ashore, Aslam said. Deltaic Bangladesh is crisscrossed by several hundred rivers while hundreds of people die each year in boat and ferry accidents in Bangladesh, largely due to overcrowding and poor safety standards of vessels.