Scores still missing after Bangladesh ferry capsizes

Rescuers have recovered at least 29 bodies a day after a ferry capsized in a river during a storm in central Bangladesh and police estimate at least 100 others are missing, officials said Friday, with one official saying there was no chance of finding further survivors. 

Exactly how many people were on board when the M.V. Miraj-4 capsized on the Meghna River near the capital, Dhaka, on Thursday wasn't clear because the ferry operators did not maintain a passenger list, a local administrator told the Associated Press. However, multiple reports indicated that the vessel was carrying about 200 people.

About 40 people swam to shore and 35 were rescued, police and rescue officials said. Wailing relatives thronged the river bank waiting for news of their missing family members. Most of the passengers were city workers and students heading home for the weekend beginning on Friday.

"Now it is more than 20 hours since the ferry sank, so there is no possibility to find anyone alive inside the vessel," Saiful Hassan Badal, deputy commissioner of Munshiganj district, told Reuters.

Relatives of the missing and the dead were gathering near the Meghna River, near where the boat capsized Thursday afternoon in Munshiganj district. Television coverage showed recovered bodies, covered in cloth, on the banks of the river.

An investigation has been ordered to look into if the vessel was overcrowded and if it had any design fault, Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan said.

Officials said they were trying to locate the crew of the ferry and said probably they left the area immediately after the accident. In 2012, at least 150 people died in the same district when a ferry carrying about 200 people capsized at night.

Low-lying Bangladesh, with extensive inland waterways and slack safety standards, has an appalling record of ferry accidents, with casualties sometimes running into the hundreds and many vessels overcrowded. Each time, the government vows to toughen regulations. Relatives of passengers protested over the slow pace of recovery efforts.

"It is more that 20 hours, but we see no visible progress," said Sabuj Mia, a survivor, who said he had been waiting for news of his missing son.

Passenger Abdur Rahman, 50, who managed to swim to shore, said passengers had asked the captain to pull into the shelter of the river bank when a sudden storm struck.

"But he ignored us ... the ferry capsized within a few seconds," Rahman said.

Another passenger who swam to shore, Liton Hussain, told reporters he had lost his wife, son and daughter.

The accident happened a month after an overloaded South Korean ferry sank, killing more than 280 passengers, many of them children on a school field trip. The captain and three senior crew members were charged with homicide Thursday. 

Wire services