DHAKA: A crowded ferry carrying about 100 passengers capsized in a river in eastern Bangladesh Thursday, leaving at least 28 people dead and more feared missing, a police official said. Local police chief Jamil Ahmed said villagers and rescuers plucked 28 bodies from the River Meghna in Brahmanbaria. At least 60 survivors were able to swim ashore, but the number of missing was unclear, he said. The head crew member survived, as did some guards on the ferry. The boat apparently went down after hitting the wreckage of another cargo ferry that sunk a few days ago during a storm, Ahmed said. By Thursday evening, rescuers stopped their search for the day to resume Friday, he said. But many people still waited on the riverbank for the missing. Forty-year-old Din Islam said his wife and five relatives were on the ferry and he feared all of them died. “I have lost all of them, found two bodies, I want them all,” Islam said as he sobbed. Survivors said the ferry was overcrowded and it sank very quickly after a big jerk when most passengers were asleep early Thursday. “It is a heart-breaking scene. Relatives of the victims are crying as we hand over the bodies. The families of those who are still missing are waiting anxiously on the river banks,” local police officer Abbas Uddin said. “There are more bodies trapped in the ferry. The divers are bringing them up now,” he said. A team of divers from Dhaka was also scouring the river to look for bodies, while more divers were on their way from the capital, he said.
