Scores missing in Bangladesh boat accident

The death toll was expected to rise with some passengers believed trapped inside the ferry and dozens missing, rescuers said.

Hundreds of people die in ferry accidents on low-lying Bangladesh’s many rivers every year as operators often ignore rules that authorities fail to enforce.

“Divers are trying to retrieve more bodies from the sunken ferry,” senior police official Zahurul Islam Khan told Reuters from the scene.

The ferry, M. L. Bipasha, sank after it collided with a cargo vessel on the Meghna river at Rajapur, 130 km (80 miles) northeast of the capital Dhaka.

Anxious people gathered on the river bank waiting for news of missing relatives, witnesses said.

A rescue vessel is expected to reach the spot late on Thursday or early on Friday to try to salvage the two-deck, mostly wooden ferry.