BANGLADESH: Storms sank two river ferries in southern Bangladesh yesterday and some 240 passengers were reported missing as divers began a frantic search for survivors.
One of the packed ferries carrying around 250 people capsized early yesterday on the Meghna river and 50 were rescued, the state news agency BSS said.
A second ferry sank on the same river just one kilometre away, leaving 40 passengers missing after six were rescued.
A total of 17 bodies have been found so far in a rescue effort familiar to impoverished and disaster-prone Bangladesh.
Divers were searching for survivors trapped in the upturned hull of the double-decker Lighting Sun, which had been sailing to Dhaka from the southern Madaripur area when it was swamped by the sudden storm near Chandpur, 170km east of the capital.
The other ferry, Diganta, sank while sailing to Narayanganj, near Dhaka, from coastal Gournadi district.
Villagers joined the search for survivors. Fifteen bodies were retrieved from the Lighting Sun and two from the Diganta, rescuers said.
"I could hear people screaming and chanting 'Allah save us' before I jumped into the water and managed to swim to a nearby char [river island]," one survivor from the Lighting Sun was quoted as saying by a reporter at the scene.
The ferry sank within minutes, the survivor said. Some passengers were plucked from atop the upturned hull of the partially submerged vessel.
Low-lying Bangladesh is criss-crossed by thousands of kilometres of waterways that are crucial trade and travel routes for the congested country's 140 million people.
Every wet season, waterways become torrents and the country is lashed by cyclones that sweep in from the Bay of Bengal.
Many of the passengers were asleep when the Lighting Sun overturned at 3.30 a.m. as the storm hit, carrying winds of up to 90km per hour.
A rescue vessel reached the capsized ferry in late afternoon and immediately dropped divers into the water. Rescue efforts were hampered by strong winds and rain, officials said.
Mr Ibrahim Hossain, salvage director of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, said he expected the Lighting Sun would be pulled to the shore by midnight yesterday.
There was no immediate word on the fate of the other vessel.
Thousands of people thronged the river bank, desperately seeking relatives. Survivors said some people swam out through the Lighting Sun's windows and might have reached safety.
Survivor Yasmin Begum (35) wailed over the body of her 18-month-old son. Her husband and his sister were missing, witnesses said.
Ten-year-old Mohammad Rana looked helplessly for his missing grandparents. "Someone bring them back to me," said the boy, crying inconsolably.
Officials said many ferries carry people in excess of capacity, making it impossible to know the exact casualties after accidents.