A Bangladeshi ferry carrying about 200 passengers has capsized south-west of capital Dhaka, officials say.
The bodies of two people have been recovered from the River Padma where the boat went down in Munshiganj district, 20 miles from Dhaka.
The ferry carrying about 200 passengers has capsized south-west of capital Dhaka
Emergency teams have rescued 100 people from the vessel, the Pinak-6.
Accidents are common on Bangladesh’s river network and scores of people are killed every year, with overcrowding and poor boat quality often to blame.
Boats are the main form of travel in some rural parts of the country.
It was not immediately clear what caused Monday’s accident.
“We have heard that the ferry was overloaded with passengers and the river was rough,” local police chief Tofazzal Hossain told AFP news agency.
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At least 26 people have died and more than 200 are missing after MV Thomas Aquinas ferry collided with a cargo ship and sank off the Philippines.
The MV Thomas Aquinas was in collision with the cargo vessel on Friday evening near the central city of Cebu, officials said.
The ship was carrying 752 passengers and 118 crew, according to latest coast guard figures.
The incident took place around 1.2 miles from the shore.
The ferry was sailing into the port at Cebu – the country’s second biggest city – when it collided with the cargo ship travelling the other way at about 21:00 local time.
“The impact was very strong,” Rachel Capuno, a spokesperson for the owners of the ferry, told local radio.
Survivors said hundreds of passengers jumped into the ocean as the ferry began taking on water and listing. The crew distributed life jackets.
Many of the passengers were asleep and others struggled to find their way in the dark, reports said.
One survivor, Jerwin Agudong, said he and other passengers jumped overboard in front of the cargo vessel.
At least 26 people have died and more than 200 are missing after MV Thomas Aquinas ferry collided with a cargo ship and sank off the Philippines
“It seems some people were not able to get out,” Jerwin Agudong told radio station DZBB.
“I pity the children. We saw dead bodies on the side, and some being rescued.”
The ferry sank within 30 minutes of the collision, the AFP news agency reports.
Rear Admiral Luis Tuason of the coast guard said navy divers recovered at least four more bodies from the wreck early on Saturday.
“There could be more bodies there but there were ropes inside that our divers could get entangled in,” he said.
The coast guard is to send more divers with deep-water equipment to help recover bodies, he added.
Another coast guard official told reporters that the cargo ship, Sulpicio Express 7, had 36 crew members on board, but it did not sink.
Passengers on the ferry had embarked at Nasipit in the southern province of Agusan del Sur.
The coastguard and some commercial vessels were able to pick up more than 600 survivors.
The 11,000 tonne ferry was 40 years old, and operated by a Chinese-owned company called 2Go.
The company became the largest ferry operator in the Philippines three years ago, following a merger of several smaller firms, our correspondent adds.
Joy Villages, an official at the coastguard’s public affairs office headquarters in Manila, told AFP it was too early to determine the cause of Friday’s collision.
She said the Thomas Aquinas was a “roll-on, roll-off” ferry that allows vehicles to be driven aboard and is commonly used in the Philippines.
Maritime accidents are common in the Philippine archipelago because of tropical weather, badly maintained passenger boats and weak enforcement of safety regulations.
The world’s worst maritime disaster in peacetime occurred in the Philippines in December 1987. More than 4,000 people died when the Dona Paz ferry collided with a tanker.
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A Tanzanian ferry carrying at least 250 people has sunk near the island of Zanzibar.
An operation to rescue passengers has been launched by the navy and police. The boat had left the city of Dar es Salaam earlier in the day.
The navy said the vessel, the MV Skagit, got into difficulty because of strong winds.
A minister in Zanzibar quoted by AFP news agency said so far 12 dead bodies had been recovered.
Last September, nearly 200 people died when an overcrowded boat with 800 people aboard sank off Zanzibar
Last September, nearly 200 people died when an overcrowded boat with 800 people aboard sank off Zanzibar.
The MV Skagit left the mainland at 12:00 local time bound for the main island of the semi-autonomous archipelago.
The journey usually takes about two hours.
Thirty-one children are believed to have been on board.
A safety officer at the Zanzibar Port Corporation told Reuters news agency the ferry was now “bottom-up”.
“Twelve dead bodies and 10 survivors have been recovered so far. Rescue operations continue in bad weather,” Mwinyihaji Makame, state minister in the Zanzibari president’s office, told journalists, AFP reports.
The route between Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar is a busy crossing, popular with both Tanzanians and foreign tourists.
At least 103 people have died after a ferry capsized during a storm in north-eastern India, local police say.
The vessel was reported to be carrying at least 300 passengers on the Brahmaputra river in Assam state.
Reports say more than 100 people are missing, while dozens of others either were rescued or made it to safety.
Poor safety standards mean ferry accidents are common on the river but that this is one of the worst disasters in recent memory.
At least 103 people have died after a ferry capsized during a storm in north-eastern India
Police officials said it happened in the remote district of Dhubri during heavy winds and rain.
Dhubri is about 350 km (215 miles) west of Assam’s main city, Guwahati.
The vessel capsized and broke into two pieces during the storm, police said.
“I could see people being swept away as the river current was very strong,” a witness to the accident, Rahul Karmakar, told AFP news agency.
Assam state Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said emergency teams were in place but nightfall and bad weather were hampering rescue efforts.
The ferry carried no lifeboats or life jackets, and was overloaded with people and goods, with passengers sitting on the roof, according to a police officer quoted by the Reuters news agency.
In a statement, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was “shocked and grieved” by the incident.
Manmohan Singh has “given instructions for all possible assistance to the government of Assam in relief operations”, the statement added.
Boats are a common mode of transport in the area, which is dotted with small islands and villages along the banks of the river.
Many of the boats are overcrowded with poor or minimal safety features.
