DHAKA, July 9: Over 400 people were feared dead when an overloaded three-decked motor launch, with more than 600 passengers on board, sank at the confluence of Bangladesh’s three mighty rivers — the Meghna, Padma and Dakatia — shortly before midnight on Tuesday.

The launch, MV Nasrin-1, was heading from the capital Dhaka to the coastal town of Bhola. It sank near Chandpur town, some 170 kms northeast of Dhaka, sources in the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) said.

“The motor vessel had a capacity of a little more than 400 passengers,” said a top BIWTA official. “But it was carrying passengers almost double the capacity, apart from several thousand kilogrammes of goods.”

Reports reaching Dhaka on Wednesday evening said some ferries and boats plying on the Meghna at the time of the disaster had rescued some 150 passengers. Of them, some 100 were taken to Chandpur Hospital, where one unidentified person died.

The BIWTA salvage ship, M V Rustam, reached the point of accident at about noon on Wednesday, but it could not find any trace of the drowned launch. The firebrigade people, recovered two bodies from the river.

BIWTA officials believe that the sunken boat was lying some 200 feet under water. “But the Rustam does not have adequate strength to salvage the launch. A bigger rescue ship, Hamja, has already started for the place of accident,” said a BIWTA official.

Another motor launch, MV Dinar, had sunk at the same point some eight years ago, drowning more than 150 passengers.

The Minister for Shipping, Col (retd) Akbar Hossain, told the press on Wednesday afternoon that an investigation committee had already set up to probe into the accident.

BIWTA official, Abul Hossain Chowdhury, said the initial investigations suggested the accident happened after one of the two engines stopped, leaving the vessel out of control in the confluence of three rivers, AFP adds

As news of the accident spread, hundreds of relatives of the missing passengers crowded the main terminal in Chandpur.

Defence ministry spokesman Nazrul Islam said in Dhaka that a naval rescue ship was sent to Chandpur with trained drivers to assist the rescue effort.

Officials shuttling to the site by speedboat said they were waiting for another rescue vessel but admitted there was little chance of finding any more survivors or even locating the vessel. Ministers Hafiz Uddin Ahmed and Mosharraf Hossain Shahjan, both from the southern coastal area where the ferry was heading, toured the area by speedboat and were supervising rescue work.