DHAKA, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from a boat sinking accident in a southwestern Bangladesh district has risen to 17, officials said on Friday, indicating that the vessel was overloaded.
Official figures showed that 17 people had died when the wooden boat capsized in the river of Panguchi in the country's Bagerhat district, some 178 km southwest of capital Dhaka, on Tuesday, with at least 50 people listed as survivors.
"Another two missing bodies were recovered on Friday morning which takes the number of total death toll to 17," Moniruzzaman Mithu, additional superintendent of police in Bagerhat, told Xinhua over phone on Friday.
He said most of the bodies were recovered from the river of Panguchi, where the vessel carrying on board some 70 passengers sank.
Mithu said that according to the relatives of passengers, two people were still missing.
He said a search operation is still under way for the missing.
The boat has been dragged to the bank, he added.
While the government has launched an investigation into the accident, a Bagerhat district administration official who declined to be named said the boat was overcrowded.
Masud Sarder, a deputy assistant director of Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence, had also said earlier that the boat sank due to overloading.
Ferry is a key means of transport in the country, and most of them are often overcrowded.
Many of the boats plying Bangladesh's waterways do not maintain passenger registers.
Boat accidents are frequent in the country which is criss-crossed by more than 300 rivers.
