At least 79 people were killed and nearly 120 were missing after a Bangladesh ferry capsized in a storm on a river near the capital Dhaka, police and officials said today.
The ferry M.V. Maharaj, which officials said was believed to have been carrying some 200 people, had been sailing to the southern town of Chandpur from Dhaka when it was caught in a tropical storm on the Buriganga river late last night.
Only a handful of people appeared to have survived.
"Seventy-nine bodies have been found so far and the search for more is continuing. A second rescue vessel is coming to join efforts to salvage the ferry," Mr Saiful Haque Khan, a director of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority said.
Mr Khan, supervising the rescue efforts on board a salvage ship, said a second vessel had been called in to help after initial attempts to pull the 100-tonne ferry out of the water failed.
"We are trying hard but the salvage operation may still take several hours," Mr Khan said. "We hope the salvage operation will be completed by midnight or early Monday."
Most of the passengers and crew of the double-decker ferry were feared drowned. "But we will not know the number of casualties until the ferry is fully salvaged," an official on the scene told reporters.
He said the exact number of people on board was unlikely to be determined as most Bangladeshi ferry companies do not keep passenger lists and often pack ships beyond their capacity.