DHAKA • A Bangladesh ferry carrying around 50 passengers collided with a cargo vessel and sank in the Shitalakhsya River, south of the capital Dhaka, leaving at least 26 people dead and a few still missing, officials said.

Twenty-one bodies were recovered yesterday.

The 11/2-storey vessel sank in the Shitalakhsya River around 6pm local time on Sunday after leaving the central industrial city of Narayanganj, which is 20km from Dhaka, for the nearby district of Munshiganj, officials told Agence France-Presse.

"Most of the bodies were found inside the sunken boat after it was dragged to the bank," Narayanganj district administrator Mustain Billah said, adding that a few could still be missing.

The police and officials said some of the passengers managed to swim ashore.

Relatives gathered at the river bank to search for their loved ones. Rescuers, including divers from the fire brigade, were searching for survivors yesterday while salvage operations were hampered by a storm on Sunday night.

The boat was packed with people rushing to leave the city after the government announced a week-long nationwide lockdown from yesterday to tackle a spike in Covid-19 cases.

Under the lockdown, all domestic travel services would be suspended from yesterday. Shops and malls would be shut for a week and a night curfew would be in place. Public and private sector businesses were told to have only a skeleton crew in their offices.

Ferry accidents are common in Bangladesh, a delta nation crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers.

Millions of people are heavily reliant on ferries for transport but vessels have a poor safety record.

Experts blame badly maintained vessels, lax safety standards at shipyards and overcrowding for many of the accidents.

The number of accidents has dropped sharply in recent years as the authorities crack down on unseaworthy vessels.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS