At least 40 folks died and over 150 others have been injured early Friday after a packed three-storey ferry carrying round 800 passengers caught hearth on the Sugandha River in southern Bangladesh, officers mentioned, within the newest maritime tragedy to hit the delta nation criss-crossed by rivers.
The hearth broke out round 3:00 am (native time) on Friday within the engine room of the Barguna-bound MV Abhijan-10 launch that began a journey from Dhaka, police and hearth service officers mentioned, including that scores of different passengers have been lacking.”Nine of the bodies were retrieved from the river… 72 passengers, mostly with fire wounds, are being treated at Barishal Medical College Hospital alone,” a fireplace official informed a neighborhood tv channel.The tv channels, quoting officers, reported that at the least 40 folks had died within the hearth.A police officer informed reporters on the scene that most people died from the fireplace whereas a number of drowned as they jumped into the river after the fireplace broke out.”Many passengers were asleep as the fire broke out…Some died from inhaling smoke, some were burnt to death and some drowned,” he said.Witnesses told reporters that the passenger ferry, called “launch” in Bangladesh, was carrying passengers beyond its capacity and most of them were visiting their homes to spend more time with their families on the extended weekend.Wailing relatives crowded the bank of the river and the hospital as massive rescue operations were underway.Another fire official said an investigation was launched into what caused the fire as the passenger ferry was passing by the Jhhalakathi district.Read | Three dead, 35 injured in Indian Oil depot fire in Bengal’s HaldiaAuthorities ordered an investigation to determine the cause of the fire. A seven-member committee has been formed and tasked to submit a report in three days. Rescuers fear the death toll is likely to rise as more passengers have been injured in the pre-dawn fire.Many passengers jumped into the river in a desperate bid to save their lives as the fire raged for about three hours. Survivors say the launch was packed with passengers, bdnews24.com reported.Kamal Uddin Bhuiyan, deputy director of the Barishal Fire Service who led the response, said they suspect the fire may have started in the launch’s engine room.”After receiving the data, 15 firefighting models led by Kamal Uddin Bhuiyan, deputy director of Barishal Division Fire Service and Civil Defence went to the scene at 3:50 am and introduced the fireplace underneath management at 5:20 am,” said a fire service control room statement.”The engine room of the launch abruptly caught hearth round 3:00 am and unfold quickly when the vessel was close to the Gabkhan Bridge,” Saidur Rahman, one of the survivors, was quoted as saying by the Daily Star newspaper.”There have been many passengers, together with youngsters and aged. Many of them jumped within the river and have been in a position to swim ashore,” he said.”I caught a burning odor and got here out of the VIP cabin to search out out that there was a fireplace. Me, my spouse and brother-in-law then jumped within the chilly water and swam to the financial institution,” he added.The accident was the newest in various comparable incidents in Bangladesh, a small nation criss-crossed by a community of some 230 rivers of various configurations and dimensions. These watercourses cowl almost 7 per cent of the entire space of the nation.An overloaded speedboat allegedly pushed by an inexperienced underage boy capsized in Bangladesh after a collision with a sand laden vessel in May this yr, killing at the least 26 folks.In June final yr, a ferry carrying over 100 passengers capsized within the Buriganga river in Bangladesh after it was hit from behind by one other ferry, killing at the least 32 folks. In February 2015, at the least 78 folks died when an overcrowded ship collided with a cargo vessel.Read | J&Ok: Fire breaks out in jungle round Vaishno Devi shrine’s Trikuta Hills, no impression on yatra