Bangladesh: At least 79 people were killed and nearly 120 were missing after a Bangladesh ferry capsized in a storm on a river near the capital Dhaka, police and officials said yesterday.
The Maharaj, which officials said was believed to have been carrying some 200 people, had been sailing to the southern town of Chandpur from Dhaka when it was caught in a tropical storm on the Buriganga river late on Saturday.
Only a handful of people appeared to have survived.
"Seventy-nine bodies have been found so far and the search for more is continuing. A second rescue vessel is coming to join efforts to salvage the ferry," Mr Saiful Haque Khan, a director of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, said.