Rescuers have pulled out 28 bodies from the Meghna until Friday afternoon after a passenger ferry sank on way to Sureshwar from Dhaka on Thursday.
Published : 16 May 2014, 04:41 PM
MV Miraj-4 was caught in a storm around 4:30pm on Thursday and sank near Daulatdia in Munshiganj.
Munshiganj Deputy Commissioner Saiful Hasan Badal said 18 of the bodies had been identified.
He said they had been handed over to families and efforts were on to salvage the launch as quickly as possible.
On Friday afternoon, rescue vessel MV Prottoy salvaged the launch and dragged it to the shore.
Prottoy reached Daulatdia on Thursday evening from Narayanganj and pinpointed the launch’s position about 80 feet below the surface.
Around 11:30am, an attempt was made to retrieve the launch but the crane cable broke while pulling it up and the launch sank again.
The 36 by 7 by 1.9 metre vessel weighs about 110 tonnes. Rescue vessel Prottoy can lift 250 tonnes.
Survivors said the launch sank because of erratic navigation and overloading of passengers.