At least 22 killed in Bangladesh boat accident

Dhaka, Aug 28 (EFE).- At least 22 people have been killed in Bangladesh’s eastern Brahmanbaria district after a boat capsized in a waterbody connected to a river, officials informed on Saturday.

The boat had sunk on Friday evening with around 100 people onboard after hitting another boat loaded with sand in the Laishka beel (backwaters) in the Bijoynagar area of Brahmanbariya.

“We have recovered 21 bodies at night and the body of a child in the morning. We are continuing our search,” Taufiqul Islam Bhuiyan, the deputy assistant director of district’s fire service, told EFE.

Bhuiyan said the water in the Laishka beel had been calm when the accident occurred.

“There was no current in the beel at that time. So, we assume most of the people who were on the boat could swim ashore. Nobody has come to us with any missing persons complaint,” he said.

Laishka Beel is a large water body connected to the Titas, a transboundary river flowing between eastern India and Bangladesh.

Mohammad Mainuddin, the duty officer at the Bijoynagar police station, said five people have been arrested in connection with the accident.

Boat accidents occur frequently in Bangladesh, where hundreds of waterways, including the Brahmaputra, Padma and Meghna rivers – all a part of the Ganges delta – are commonly used for transport.

In most cases, the accidents can be attributed to overloading and poor condition of the vessels.

However, such incidents have considerably reduced over the years due to improvements in weather forecasting and the implementation of new safety regulations.