DHAKA: Bangladeshi rescuers yesterday called off their search for a heavily overloaded river boat that sank a week ago drowning scores of passengers, an official said.
Rescuers have recovered 46 bodies from the river in Munshiganj district where the ferry, carrying more than 200 passengers, sank in rough conditions last Monday.
The search for the remaining victims would continue in the river, an official said, although the number of missing has been revised down from 130 to 61.
Chief rescue official Saiful Hasan said the search for the boat itself, which was licenced to carry just 85 passengers, was being abandoned after fruitless efforts and ongoing bad weather.
“We’ve called off the search as we’ve failed to locate it despite using latest technology,” Hasan, the district’s chief administrator, said.
“We have verified the list of the missing people and 61 people are now confirmed missing,” he added.
Hasan said desperate relatives were trying to locate the sunken ferry themselves by hiring fishing trawlers, fearing that their loved ones might still be trapped inside.
BANGKOK: Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej is in good overall health, the palace said yesterday, with doctors administering medicine to tackle stomach inflammation detected during a routine checkup.
The 86-year-old king was admitted on Wednesday to Bangkok’s Siriraj hospital, where he was treated for nearly four years from 2009 to 2013 for a number of ailments.
There were no details on the expected length of his current stay in hospital.
King Bhumibol, the world’s longest-reigning monarch, has rarely been seen in public since leaving the hospital in 2013 and lives at the Klai Kangwon Palace - which translates as “Far from Worries Palace” - in the seaside town of Hua Hin.
According to a statement by the Office of His Majesty’s Principal Private Secretary, the king’s respiratory system, lungs, body temperature and blood pressure were normal.
Agencies
