GENEVA, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said it had received reports of a shipwreck on Tuesday morning in the Bay of Bengal in which at least four Rohingya refugees died when their boat capsized close to the southern shore of Bangladesh.
UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch said at a UN media briefing that others who were injured in the shipwreck had been taken to local hospitals.
"According to survivors, six families -- 42 people in total -- many of them women and children," had left on a fishing boat from south of Maungdaw town in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state, Baloch said.
They ran into rough seas and approached shore in the Ukhia sub-district in Bangladesh around 8:30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT), Baloch said.
The boat was hit by large waves and eventually capsized, trapping people underneath. Several were injured when they hit the engine.
A 15-year-old boy died at sea, said Baloch, and 22 injured people were rushed to hospitals and NGO clinics, but three reportedly died on the way.
The remaining 19 were taken to UNHCR's transit center near Kutupalong camp where they will receive further assistance and support.
UNHCR said it had been in touch with the Bangladesh authorities to ensure safe passage in a systematic and timely way and to step up efforts to rescue people in distress at sea.
The accident happened as the UN migration agency, IOM, said that the total Rohingya population in the Cox's Bazar area of Bangladesh was now over 820,000.
IOM spokesperson Joel Millman said "the number of new arrivals is now slowing," but "the settlements are dangerously congested and overcrowded and the pressure on sources of clean drinking water and basic sanitation are enormous."
