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Rescuers and navy divers recovered 10 bodies after a boat carrying religious pilgrims capsized in Bangladesh on Tuesday, bringing the death toll to 61, police said, as anxious relatives waited for several still missing news. Sunday’s incident near the northern town of Boda was the deadliest in years in the South Asian country, where rivers criss-cross and overcrowding on aging ships is common.
Authorities said 17 of the victims were children, with footage showing some as young as four.
The terrifying scene was captured on mobile phones as onlookers screamed from the shore as the boat overturned in the river on its way to a popular temple.
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Boda police chief Sujay Kumar Roy said rescuers, including firefighters, navy divers and villagers, were searching miles down the Karotoa River to find the site of the tragedy.
The boat was carrying about 90 people, about 50 of them were pilgrims heading to the century-old Hindu temple for major festivals, according to police.
“We resumed the search this morning and rescuers found more bodies downstream and underwater … and some people are missing,” Roy told AFP.
At least 30 of the dead were women, said police inspector Abdur Ra​​​​​zzaque.
“A committee has been formed to investigate the incident,” he said.
Dozens of relatives of the missing remained huddled along the riverbank on Tuesday, although most had already left after authorities handed over the remains of their families.
“Three women in my family have been missing since the boat capsized,” a distraught relative, Bikash Chandra, said late Monday.
“We found one around 10:00 a.m. that was rescued earlier. But I haven’t found the other two.”
Regional police chief Sirajul Huda said on Monday that the ship was carrying three times its allowable capacity.
“The boatmen asked some people to disembark to save weight. But no one listened,” he told AFP.
Mobile phone footage broadcast by Channel 24 showed the overcrowded boat suddenly overturning, splashing passengers into the muddy brown river.
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Dozens of people watching from the shore began shouting. The weather was calm.
Thousands of Hindus in Muslim-majority Bangladesh visit the famous Bodeshwari temple every year.
Sunday marked the start of the Durga Puja, an important Hindu festival that draws large crowds at temples. In December, a crowded three-decker ferry caught fire in southern Bangladesh, killing around 40 people.
In June 2020, a ferry sank in Dhaka after colliding with another boat, killing at least 32 people. In 2015, an overcrowded boat collided with a cargo ship in a river west of the capital, killing at least 78 people.
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