77 Feared Drowned After Ferries Collide in Bangladesh

ARICHA, Bangladesh — As many as 77 people were feared trapped and drowned in a sunken ferry Friday after it collided in a turbulent river with another ferry crammed full of cars and trucks.

Twenty fire department rescuers used speedboats and ropes with anchors attached to try to find the boat, which police said was resting 30 feet below the surface.

Police said that 73 of the 150 people aboard were rescued and that the rest were missing and believed trapped when the vessels collided Thursday night on the Jamuna River minutes after the passenger ferry left the terminal.

Authorities said they did not know the cause of the collision, which occurred in fast-moving currents.

One passenger said he heard a “big bang” before the ferry careened to one side and sank.

“I jumped through the window into the waves,” said Sukkur Ali, a 45-year-old goods trader from the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, 20 miles southwest of the accident site.

Ali and some other survivors were rescued by fishing boats. Local residents also pulled some survivors from the waters, river port official Abdus Salam said.

Salam earlier said that about 100 people had been rescued and were in hospitals, but doctors at local hospitals reported only 18 admissions. No bodies had been found by late Friday.

Ferries are the most common way of crossing rivers in Bangladesh. More than 50 have sunk since 1981, killing more than 1,000 people. Overcrowding and storms have been the main causes.