A ferry carrying roughly 200 passengers sank while crossing a river in central Bangladesh on Monday morning, and despite rescue efforts, about half of the passengers were missing and presumed dead, officials said.
The ferry, which was making the two-hour journey from an inland station to the city of Mawa, was caught in bad weather and capsized because of the strong current in the Padma River’s main channel, Samsuddoha Khondaker, the chairman of Bangladesh’s Inland Water Transport Authority, said in a telephone interview.
He said the ferry had come to rest on the riverbed, about 80 feet below the surface. Mr. Khondaker said 100 people had been reported missing.
Bangladesh’s land mass is divided by a huge network of rivers, and ferries are used to transport heavy loads of cargo below decks crowded with passengers. Accidents are common, often leading to confusion because ferry operators do not keep passenger lists.
About 50 people died in May when a ferry capsized in the same district, Munshiganj. More than 100 people were killed two years ago in Munshiganj when a ferry collided with a cargo ship. In 2009, two separate ferry accidents claimed more than 100 lives.
An official told Reuters that most of the passengers on the ferry that sank on Monday had been returning to the city after traveling to their home villages to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
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