At least 10 people have died and over 70 are missing after a twin-deck ferry with more than 100 aboard sank on a river during a storm in southern Bangladesh on Sunday, police said. Rescuers were trying to reach the spot where the ferry went down in the choppy five-km wide Tentulia river at Galachipa, 350 km (220 miles) south of the capital Dhaka. "M.V. Prince of Patuakhali sank in stormy weather, and few have been rescued or swam to safety," a police officer told Reuters by telephone without giving details. Police and villagers pulled out 10 bodies from the river where hundreds of people gathered to search for missing relatives, witnesses said.
A Bangladesh Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) official said a witness had reported 20 people had swum to safety or had been rescued by vessels in the area.
A rescue vessel is due at the scene in the evening, the BIWTA official said.
Scores of people die every year in ferry disasters in Bangladesh.
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