Bangladesh ferry accident toll rises to 105
KISHORI CHAR, Bangladesh - Agence France-Presse
A general view shows the rescue operation udnerway to recover passengers after a ferry accident in Munshigong on March 13, 2012. AFP photo
Rescue workers and divers in Bangladesh pulled dozens of bodies today from the wreckage of a ferry that sank after being hit by an oil barge, as the death toll rose to 105.The packed Shariatpur 1 vessel, carrying about 200 passengers, capsized in the early hours of yesterday morning after a collision with the barge in the Meghna river, 40 kilometers southeast of the capital Dhaka.
Rescue teams successfully raised the ferry and brought it to shore after nearly two days of efforts, head of search operation navy commander Gulzar Hossain said.
"The death toll is now 105," he told AFP. "Divers searched inside the cabins and the lower deck and found dozens of bodies. We're combing through every pocket inside the ferry, but most of the missing have been accounted for." "Our teams are also scouring the river bed downstream to see whether any bodies have been washed away." Hundreds of distraught relatives gathered at the river's edge for the second day as the dead were laid in lines on the bank for identification.
"Here is my mother, here is mother," a ten-year-old boy cried out and rushed into the water as a diver brought out one burqa-clad woman.
The double-decker ferry plunged 20-meters to the bottom of the river after being hit by the barge at about 2:30 a.m.
Efforts to salvage the sunken vessel were slow as it was weighed down by hundreds of sacks of chilli it was carrying as cargo.
The exact number of people on board was uncertain as passenger lists are often not maintained properly in Bangladesh and many travellers buy tickets on board.
Samsuddoha Khondker, chairman of the Inland Water Transport Authority, said an investigation was under way and that early reports suggested the ship, built in 1991, sank rapidly after it was hit.
Dozens of passengers swam to safety while others were rescued by a passing ferry.
"It's a national tragedy. We are trying to find which oil barge hit the ferry," Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan said in Dhaka. "We need to have maritime police to improve night-time navigation on our waterways." Survivor Rina Begum said that the ferry sank after a loud noise woke her up.
"Everyone was screaming," she said. "I jumped through a window, but my husband could not. I was rescued by a vessel one and a half hours later. I have 15 relatives missing. We were part of a wedding party." Sirajul Howlader, 40, who works in Italy, was inside one of the cabins on the upper deck when the vessel started to tilt and take in water.
"I went to sleep locking up my cabin. But suddenly I woke up after a jolt and a deafening sound. I managed to unlock the cabin and jumped before the ferry sank within minutes.
"I grabbed a chilli sack floating on the water. The river was too big to swim. Soon enough another vessel threw a rope at me," he told AFP.
Boats are the main form of travel in Bangladesh's remote rural areas and accidents are common due to lax safety standards and overloading.
In April last year 32 people were killed after a passenger vessel sank in the Meghna river after colliding with a cargo ship. At least 85 people drowned in 2009 when an overloaded triple-decker ferry capsized off Bhola Island in the country's south.
Naval officials have said more than 95 percent of Bangladesh's hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized boats do not meet minimum safety regulations.