Bangladesh ferry sinking: 32 dead, scores missing

At least 32 people drowned when a ferry sank in Bangladesh before dawn on Tuesday with scores more bodies feared trapped inside the capsized vessel, officials said. Rescue workers began removing fatalities from the double-decker Shariatpur 1 ferry, which was hit by an oil barge in the middle of the Meghna river, 40 kilometres (25 miles) south-east of the capital Dhaka.
"Divers have recovered 32 bodies from the sunken vessel including at least five women and two children," local deputy police chief Tariqul Islam told AFP at the scene, adding the death toll was likely to rise. "One diver pulled the dead body of a woman cradling her dead daughter to her chest," he said.
The rescue operation slowed during the day as emergency boats attempted to lift the ferry to the surface and pull it to the river bank to complete the search. "It will take hours as the vessel was far underwater and laden with cargo," Commander Gulzar Hossain of the Bangladesh Navy, who is leading the operation, said.