Thousands of Bangladeshi fishermen are missing feared drowned after a storm last week in the Bay of Bengal, officials said today, sharply raising earlier estimates.
Rescuers have so far found more than 100 bodies after a storm last Tuesday night wrecked their boats.
"Lists provided by local government bodies, fishing community leaders and fishing boat owners suggested more than 1,700 fishermen are still missing from the Barguna district alone," said district administrator Kazi Obaidur Rahman, today.
Barguna is 300 km (188 miles) south of the capital, Dhaka.
Rahman said 250 out of about 700 boats caught in the storm off the Barguna coast had returned to shore over the past four days. The fate of the other vessels was unknown.
"The navy, coastguard, civil administration and the fishing trawler owners' association have launched a massive search and rescue operation since Saturday," he told Reuters, adding that bad weather had prevented an earlier start.
Returning fishermen have told authorities they saw numerous bodies floating in the sea. Dogs were seen eating bodies washed up on sandy islands. The other affected districts are Patuakhali, Cox's Bazar and Bagerhat, where local officials today said nearly 2,000 fishermen were still unaccounted for.
Along the coast, grieving relatives crowd the shores and harbours looking for their loved ones.
Local officials said they were appalled by the huge number of people reported missing, feared drowned. "But we have not lost all the hope yet," said an official at Cox's Bazar. Many fishermen might have been driven into the Sundarban mangrove forest for shelter and were waiting for calmer seas.
"After previous storms, we had seen people coming back safe and alive even months after they were reported lost," said the official, who asked not to be named.
An unknown number of fishermen go missing every year, caught up in storms as they sail far from shore in search of a big catch, often missing storm alerts issued on radio, officials and meteorologists say.