Boat accident in Bangladesh leaves 20 people dead

DHAKA: More than 20 people have died and about 50 remain missing in Bangladesh after a passenger boat carrying more than 100 people sank in a large pond.

The accident occurred in the Bijoynagar area in the Brahmanbaria district on Friday evening, local police official Imranul Islam said on Saturday. He said rescuers recovered at least 21 bodies by late Friday. Local news reports, quoting the area’s top government administrator, Hayat-Ud-Dola, said about 50 people were missing.

A witness said two cargo vessels hit the boat and it quickly sank, the Daily Star newspaper reported.

“I was grazing cattle on the bank of the pond. I heard a loud noise and saw the cargo vessels hitting the passenger trawler. I saw the trawler sinking quickly,” witness Nurul Amin told the paper.

The area is 82-km east of the capital, Dhaka.

Bangladesh is a delta nation where water transport is heavily used to move people and goods, but deadly accidents are common because of unskilled operation and poor enforcement of safety rules.

In May, at least 26 people were killed when a speedboat packed with passengers collided with a vessel transporting sand on the Padma river. In February 2015, at least 78 people died when an overcrowded ship collided with a cargo boat.