The death toll in Tuesday's ferry mishap in southwest Bangladesh has crossed the 100 mark, local media reports citing officials said late Wednesday.
Officials said search and rescue operations have led to the recovery of at least 112 bodies so far. Fears were also expressed that the death toll may rise further as ten more people are still missing. Many of the missing are still thought to be trapped inside the wreckage.
Rescue workers have salvaged the wreckage of Shariatpur 1, the ferry which sank in the Meghna river after colliding with a small oil tanker in the Munshiganj district, south-east of Bangladeshi capital city Dhaka, Tuesday morning.
Survivors say there were more than 200 people on board Shariatpur 1 when it sank sank in about 21 meters of water Tuesday morning. While some 35 passengers were rescued by another ferry soon after the pre-dawn accident, 40 others managed to swim ashore on their own.
The ill-fated ferry was traveling to Dhaka from neighboring Shariatpur district when the accident happened. Divers had recovered some 31 bodies from inside the sunken vessel on Tuesday itself. Search operations for victims are still continuing.
Boats are the main form of travel in Bangladesh's remote rural areas, which are crisscrossed by rivers and canals emptying into the Bay of Bengal. Such accidents are not infrequent in Bangladesh due to non-compliance of safety parameters and overloading.
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