9 bodies pulled out after boat sinks in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh

Authorities in Bangladesh have pulled out the bodies of nine people who drowned in a river after a boat accident last week.

On Jan. 5, a motorboat with 30 passengers sank in the Dhaleshwari River near the central city of Narayanganj, located some 30 kilometers (19 miles) southeast of the capital Dhaka.

The boat capsized after it was hit by a larger vessel that was ferrying people across the river.

Most of the 30 people on the motorboat had managed to swim ashore, but 10 were missing and feared to have drowned.

The nine victims found are a 5-year-old boy, three women, and five men, while a 2-year-old girl is still missing.

Bangladesh, a riverine country with as many as 800 rivers, has a largely substandard transport system for its myriad of waterways.

Deadly accidents are a regular occurrence as hundreds of thousands of people, mostly in the country’s south, have to rely on unsafe vessels that are often overcrowded.

According to official records, more than 550 passenger vessels capsized in Bangladesh between 1991 and 2020.

More than 3,600 people died in these accidents and over 500 remain missing.​​​​​​​