At least 25 people today have been killed in a collision involving two boats in central Bangladesh on Monday, police mentioned.
“We have rescued five people and retrieved 25 bodies,” neighborhood police chief Miraz Hossain told AFP.
The collision was involving a packed boat carrying at least 30 passengers and a vessel transporting sand in the Padma river close to the town of Shibchar.
More people today have been reportedly missing although fire service officials and locals continued rescue operations, yet another policeman mentioned.
Maritime accidents are frequent in Bangladesh, a delta nation crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers.
Experts blame poor upkeep, lax security requirements at shipyards and overcrowding for quite a few of the accidents.
Vessels transporting sand sit low in the water and can be challenging to see in choppy situations, specifically when light is poor.
In early April, more than 30 people today died when a packed ferry with about 50 passengers hurrying home from the central city of Narayanganj ahead of an impending coronavirus lockdown collided with a bigger cargo vessel.
In June last year, a ferry sank in Dhaka just after it was hit from behind by yet another ferry, killing at least 32 people today.
In February 2015, at least 78 people today died when an overcrowded ship collided with a cargo boat.