Bangladesh: dozens dead in sinking ferry
Several dozen people were killed in the sinking on Sunday April 4 of a ferry in a river in Bangladesh after a collision with another boat.
AFP - MUNIR UZ ZAMAN
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
At least 26 people were killed in the sinking on Sunday April 4 of a ferry in a Bangladesh river after a collision with another boat.
This is what rescuers announced on Monday, after the wreckage had been refloated.
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The "Sabit Al Hasan" sank late Sunday afternoon following a collision with a larger cargo ship on the Shitalakhsya River, after leaving Narayanganj, 20 kilometers from the capital Dhaka, bound for the district neighbor of Munshiganj.
The boat was taken out of the very polluted waters of this river on Monday noon. “
The provisional death toll is 26.
We found 21 bodies in the boat,
”
Mustain Billah, a local official
, told
AFP
.
A member of the local police had told
AFP
the ferry was full of passengers eager to leave Narayanganj after the government instituted a seven-day nationwide lockdown from Monday to combat a recent increase in Covid cases. 19.
Mustain Billah said the ferry was carrying at least 46 people.
"
About twenty people managed to swim to the shore after the sinking,
" he told
AFP
, adding that there may still be people missing.
“
We have ordered an investigation into the accident.
"
Dipak Saha, local police chief, said the search was complicated for hours by a powerful storm that started after the accident.
As part of the restrictive measures taken to fight the pandemic, the circulation of buses, ferries, trains and planes is suspended from Monday.
Shops and shopping centers will be closed for a week and a night curfew imposed.
Relatively frequent accidents in the country
Ferry accidents are relatively frequent in Bangladesh, a country streaked with a multitude of rivers.
Millions of people depend on these boats for transport, especially in the southern coastal region of the country, but the boats are often overloaded and in poor condition.
In June last year, a ferry sank in Dhaka after being struck by another boat, and at least 32 people were killed.
In
February 2015
, at least 78 people died when an overloaded ship collided with a cargo ship in a river in central Bangladesh.
(
with AFP
)
►
To read: Covid-19 in Bangladesh: national reconfinement to fight against the increase in cases
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