BANGLADESH: Five people died and rescue workers searched for survivors after a small ferry packed with up to 50 passengers sank having collided with another boat in Bangladesh on Sunday, officials said.
The vessel sank in the Shitalakhsya river around 6:00 pm after leaving the central industrial city of Narayanganj, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the capital Dhaka, for the nearby district of Munshiganj, officials told AFP.
A local police inspector said the ferry was packed with passengers rushing to leave Narayanganj after the Government confirmed a seven-day lockdown across the country from Monday to combat the recent rise in COVID-19 cases.
“The death toll is five,” the government administrator of Narayanganj, Shukla Sarker, said, adding that divers from the fire brigade were leading the search for survivors.
Sarker said 11 survivors were pulled from the water and other passengers may have swam to safety on the other side of the river. “So we don't know how many people are missing,” she told AFP.
- AFP
