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| Wednesday, 26 May 2004 |
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Ferry passengers begged crew to moor vessel DHAKA, Tuesday (AFP) Passengers of a Bangldeshi ferry that capsized during a storm leaving scores of people dead had pleaded with the captain and crew to moor the overloaded vessel, a report said Tuesday. The MV Lighting Sun carrying around 250 people was one of four boats that capsized early Sunday in the Meghna river in Chandpur district, around 40 kilometres (24 miles) south of Dhaka, leaving at least 61 people dead. Most of the bodies were recovered Monday after a salvage team refloated the upturned MV Lighting Sun, amid conflicting reports of the number of people still missing. Chandpur district administrative chief Abdur Rab Howlader said survivors told him they had begged the captain to stop the ferry but that their requests were ignored, the English language daily The Independent reported. "(The boat) was overloaded ... but the staff did not pay heed to the passengers' request," the newspaper reported him as saying. "All the staff have survived and fled the scene. They should all be charged with mass murder," he added. The dead included 11 children, 21 women and 29 men, the official news agency BSS said. The four boats capsized in separate accidents in the same stretch of the Meghna river. A second boat, the MV Diganta, believed to have been carrying between 40 and 60 passengers, has not yet been traced although almost all those on board have been accounted for, Rahul Amin, of the Ferry Owners' Association told AFP. No casualties were reported from the two other boats which were small passenger vessels. As the search for bodies continued Tuesday it was still not clear how many passengers from the MV Lighting Sun remained missing. |
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