July 15, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 14, 1424

DHAKA, July 14: Specialists on the sonar-equipped Bangladesh navy ship Shaibal located the ill-fated ferry on Monday after a three-day search, almost six days after it sank with over 800 people on board.

Officials in the office of the deputy commissioner in Chandipur, 95 kilometres from Dhaka, told reporters that a move to salvage the sunken ferry had not begun as yet.

DPA adds:

200 BODIES: The total number of bodies picked up rose to over 200 on Monday.

According to local officials, most bodies plucked from the swirling water several kilometres downstream from the accident site last Wednesday were disfigured beyond recognition and were buried in nearby mass graves.

The ferry capsized in the Meghna near Chandpur town, 95 kilometres from Dhaka. Caught in a local squall M.V. Nasreen tipped over with 800 people on board while taking a sharp turn towards Chandpur river station. Some 500 passengers were trapped inside the sunken vessel.

Civil defence sources said some 220 passengers swam to safety or were rescued by passing boats in the country’s worst river tragedy in recent history.—dpa