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Death Toll Rises to 153 in Bangladesh's Launch Disaster
The death toll from the launch disaster last Friday in the river Meghna near Chandpur town, some 169 kilometers southeast to Dhaka, rose to 153 with the recovery of 42 more bodies till 2 p.m.Tuesday, the United News of Bangladesh reported.
Resuming rescue operation in the morning, police and local people found the 42 mutilated bodies floating in the river within 20 to 25 kilometers of the spot of the launch mishap.
Officials said they recovered 20 bodies from Sadar upazila (village), 14 from Matlab and 8 from Haimchar Tuesday. The corpses were taken to Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy.
"It will be difficult for the relatives of the victims to identify these bodies after five days of their death," said an official, informing that the bodies would be buried after autopsy.
Earlier, a total of 111 bodies, mostly of children, were recovered. Of them, 46 bodies were found on Monday and they were lying in front of Sadar Hospital morgue awaiting burial.
The accident occurred early Friday morning when a double-decker launch, MV Rajhangshi, sailing from Dhaka to Madaripur sank in the river with some 400 passengers aboard after a collision with another launch, MV Jalkapot-2.
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