At least 26 die in Bangladesh ferry crash ahead of nationwide coronavirus lockdown

Officials said the ferry was packed with passengers after the government said it would impose a seven-day lockdown to curb a recent rise in Covid-19 cases

About 20 swam to safety after the ferry collided with a bigger cargo vessel in the Shitalakshya River on Sunday. Several could still be missing

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Relatives mourn after several people died as a ferry collided with a cargo vessel and sank on Sunday in the Shitalakshya River in Bangladesh. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:55am, 5 Apr 2021Updated: 6:01pm, 5 Apr 2021

The death toll from a ferry disaster in Bangladesh jumped to 26 on Monday after rescuers pulled the vessel out of the water and found more bodies inside, officials said.

The sunken ferry was extracted from the heavily polluted Shitalakshya River in the central district of Narayanganj as hundreds of onlookers and relatives of the missing watched from the shore.

“We have found 21 bodies today after the ship was pulled out of the water,” said local official Mustain Billah.

The one-and-a-half storey Sabit Al Hasan sank after it collided with a bigger cargo vessel on Sunday. It had departed less than an hour earlier from Narayanganj, 20km (12 miles) from Dhaka.

The rescue operation to recover the capsized passenger ferry in the Shitalakshya river in Narayanganj, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo: EPA-EFE

A local police inspector said the ferry was packed with passengers after the government confirmed it would impose a seven-day lockdown across the country to combat the recent rise in coronavirus cases.