Death toll in Munshiganj launch capsize rises to 54
Death toll in Munshiganj launch capsize rises to 54
The death toll from Munshiganj launch capsize in Meghna river rose to 54 as rescuers recovered 23 more bodies today.
The BIWTA divers recovered nine, out of 23 bodies, from inside the sunken launch while the rest were recovered from different points of the river, reports our Munshiganj correspondent quoting ATM Mahbubul Karim, upazila nirbahi officer of Gazaria.
The UNO however failed to say the exact figure of missing people.
Of the total 53 bodies were handed over to the relatives waiting on the bank of the river till 2:00pm.
Meanwhile, the launch, MV Miraj-4, was towed to the shore by the salvage vessels of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) around 3:00am.
The relatives of the missing people attacked the salvage vessel, Prattay, anchored on the bank of the river this morning after BIWTA Chairman Md Shamsuddoha Khandaker declared the rescue operation over around 9:00am.
They resumed the operation after one and a half hours at the instruction of local lawmaker Mrinal Kanti Das and Deputy Commissioner Md Saiful Hassan.
The launch MV Miraj-4 carrying 200 passengers capsized during a storm on the Meghna river Thursday afternoon.
MV Miraj-4 was heading for Shariatpur from Dhaka.