Two river ferries capsized or sank in Bangladesh's storm-hit south today and 240 passengers
were reported missing as divers began a desperate search for survivors.
One of the packed ferries carrying around 250 people overturned early today on the Meghna river and 50 were rescued, the state news agency BSS said. Earlier reports had said up to 300 were aboard.
A second ferry sank on the same river just half a mile away and 40 passengers were missing, police said. Six were rescued from that vessel.
The disasters were the latest in a long series in the history of impoverished Bangladesh.
Divers were searching for survivors trapped in the upturned hull of the double-decker MV. Lighting Sun, which had been sailing to Dhaka from the southern Madaripur area when it was
swamped by the sudden storm near Chandpur, over 100 miles east of the capital.
The other ferry, MV Diganta, sank while sailing from Narayanganj, near Dhaka, from coastal Gournadi district.
Survivors said the storm hit after it left Chandpur, its last stop before Narayanganj.
Villagers joined the search for survivors.
"I could hear people screaming and chanting 'Allah save us' before I jumped into the water and managed to swim to a nearby char (river island)," one survivor from the Lighting Sun was quoted as saying.
The ferry sank within minutes, the survivor said. Some passengers were plucked from atop the upturned hull of the partly submerged vessel.