At least 79 die after ferry sinks in Bangladesh

AT least 79 people were killed and nearly 120 were missing after a Bangladeshi ferry capsized in a storm on a river near the capital Dhaka, police and officials said yesterday.

The ferry MV Maharaj, which officials said was believed to have been carrying 200 people, had been sailing to the southern town of Chandpur from Dhaka when it was caught in a storm on the Buriganga river late on Saturday. Only a handful of people were known 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,” Saiful Haque Khan, a director of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority