Hundreds missing in ferry sinking

A group of people on boats look for their missing relatives in the Meghna River Saturday.

DHAKA, Bangladesh -- The search is on for survivors after a ferry carrying hundreds of passengers sank in southeastern Bangladesh in high winds and strong currents.

The triple-deck ferry MV Salahuddin -- carrying as many as 500 passengers on board -- went down nearly two hours into a journey from the capital Dhaka to the southern coastal district of Patuakhali around midnight Friday.

No official report has yet been released on casualties, but officials fear hundreds of people may have died in the strong currents of the Meghna River.

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Up to 100 people were able to swim to safety or were picked up by boats along the river, police said on Saturday.

So far only two bodies have been found floating near the site, Bakhtiar Alam, police chief in the area, told The Associated Press.

Other survivors may have been swept downstream, officials said, adding it was difficult to work out exactly where the ferry went down, with strong currents in the river hampering rescue efforts.

Rescue vessels have reached the disaster scene, an area about 40 miles southeast of Dhaka, with local fishermen using their boats to search for the missing.

No hard and fast rule

It was not clear what caused the accident or whether the ferry was overloaded as is common in the vast waterways of Bangladesh.

A delta nation of 130 million people crisscrossed by many rivers, Bangladesh is plagued by such accidents as crew often ignore storm warnings and flout maximum-capacity and safety rules.

A Bangladeshi Navy diver starts a rescue operation in the Meghna River Saturday.

Police said on Saturday it was difficult to confirm how many people were on board these ferries.

"There is no hard and fast rule (in Bangladesh) for buying tickets before boarding a ferry, so many passengers get on without tickets and pay before disembarking," one police officer said.

"It is difficult to give you an exact headcount."

More than 200 people were killed when a ferry sank near Chandpur in 1994 in one of the country's worst ferry disasters.

Tropical storms with high winds plague the impoverished country every summer, making the journeys much more perilous.

Thunder storms have swept through Bangladesh over the last two days killing at least 25 people and injuring over 100, officials said on Friday.