DHAKA, Bangladesh: Bangladeshi authorities buried 23 unclaimed bodies on Saturday after a day-long search failed to recover more victims or survivors of a massive fire on a crowded river ferry that left 40 people dead.
Habibur Rahman, a top government official, said he had an incomplete list of 17 missing people who were on board the ferry on Friday when the fire awoke passengers around 3 a.m., forcing many to leap into cold waters and swim ashore.
Divers looked for more survivors before suspending their efforts at sunset on Saturday.
Rahman said 50 people were being treated in two hospitals, while 19 others have been sent home.
Dr. Samanta Lal Sen, chief coordinator of the Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute in Dhaka, said his hospital was treating 15 people for serious burns. “I would say everyone is critical and no one is out of danger,” he said.
Thirty-five injured in another hospital in Barishal were out of danger, said hospital Director Dr. Saiful Isalm.
Investigators inspected the fire-ravaged ferry MV Abhijan-10, and one of them, Mohammed Tofayel Islam, said they found some defects in the engine room. “We’re trying to unearth other possible reasons,” he said.
It took 15 fire engines several hours to control the blaze and cool down the vessel, according to fire officer Kamal Uddin Bhuiyan, who led the rescue operation. Afterward, the blackened hull of the ferry sat anchored at the river’s edge while many anxious relatives gathered on the banks.
The ferry was carrying some 800 passengers, many of whom were traveling to visit family and friends for the weekend, officials said.
Police officer Moinul Haque said rescuers recovered 37 bodies from the river, while two people died from burns on the way to the hospital. Another injured passenger died overnight in a Dhaka hospital.
The ferry was traveling from Dhaka to Barguna, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) to the south. It caught fire off the coast of Jhalokati district on the Sugandha River, toward the end of the journey.
Ferries are a leading means of transportation in Bangladesh, which is crisscrossed by about 130 rivers, and accidents involving the vessels are common, often blamed on overcrowding or lax safety rules. In April, 25 people died after a ferry collided with another vessel and capsized outside Dhaka.
Death toll in massive Bangladesh ferry fire rises to 40
https://arab.news/zjf8q
Death toll in massive Bangladesh ferry fire rises to 40
- A top government official, said he had an incomplete list of 17 missing people who were on board the ferry on Friday
- Divers looked for more survivors before suspending their efforts at sunset on Saturday
Russian drone attack forces power cuts in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih, military says
- Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid
KYIV: Russian drones struck infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday, forcing emergency power blackouts for more than 45,000 customers and disrupting heat supplies, military administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said.
“Please fill up on water and charge your devices, if you have the chance. It’s going to be difficult,” Vilkul said on the Telegram messaging app.
Water utility pumping stations switched to generators and water remained in the system, but there could be pressure problems.
The full scale of the attack was not immediately known. There was no comment from Russia about the strike.
Russia has repeatedly struck Ukraine’s power plants, substations and transmission lines with missiles and drones, seeking to knock out electricity and heating and hinder industry during the nearly four-year war.
Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid.
Kryvyi Rih, a steel-and-mining hub in the Dnipropetrovsk region and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, has been hit repeatedly, with strikes killing civilians and damaging homes and industry.
The city sits close enough to southern front lines to be within strike range, while its factories, logistics links and workforce make it economically important and a key rear-area center supporting Ukraine’s war effort.
