DHAKA: Rescue teams including navy divers in Bangladesh have recovered 24 bodies from a bus that plunged into a river at a ferry crossing, officials said on Thursday.

The bus sank into the deep waters of the Padma river in Goalanda on Wednesday, about 65 kilometres west of the capital Dhaka. It had around 50 passengers on board, many of whom managed to escape.

A fire service report said that 24 bodies, including those of five children, had been recovered by midday on Thursday.

Some were pulled out by fire service officers, others by locals who come to help, as well as by the navy divers.

“The bus was waiting to board a ferry, when it fell into the river,” said Noor Jahan Begum, 35, who saw the accident. “Some passengers got out of the bus, but their family members died, trapped inside.”

Deadly crashes are relatively common in the South Asian nation, because of poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.

Bangladesh’s Road Safety Foundation reported over 200 deaths during the just-concluded Eid holidays. In one incident, a train rammed into a bus, killing 12.

The World Health Organisation says that while reported road traffic fatalities in Bangladesh are around 5,000 a year, it estimates that actual deaths are far higher, at more than 31,500, according to figures from 2023.

That translates to more than 85 a day in the country of 170 million people.

In neighbouring India, at least 13 people were killed in a bus crash on Thursday in Andhra Pradesh state, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi called “tragic”. The bus burst into flames, burning the bodies.

India, with 1.4 billion people, recorded more than 177,000 road traffic deaths in 2025, according to the roads ministry, or 485 a day.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2026