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       Onlookers gather as others conduct rescue operations for the victims of the boat capsized in Brahmanbaria on Aug. 27, 2021.

       AL MAMUN/AFP/Getty Images

       A passenger boat carrying more than 100 people sank Friday after colliding with another small boat in a large waterbody, leaving at least 21 people dead and scores missing in eastern Bangladesh, officials said.

       The accident took place at the Bijoynagar area in Brahmanbaria district in the evening, local police official Imranul Islam said by phone. Rescuers recovered at least 21 bodies by late Friday, while survivors said about 100 people were on board during the accident, he said. Local news reports, quoting the area’s top government administrator, Hayat-Ud-Dola, said about 50 people were missing.

       A witness said two cargo vessels hit the boat that sank very quickly after colliding with another small boat, Dhaka-based The Daily Star newspaper reported.

       “‘`I was grazing cattle on the bank of the beel (water body). I heard a loud noise and saw the cargo vessels hitting the passenger trawler. I saw the trawler sinking quickly,” witness Nurul Amin was quoted as saying by the daily.

       Such accidents often happen in Bangladesh, a delta nation crisscrossed by more than 230 rivers, because of lax enforcement of laws and unskilled driving.

       The area is 82 kilometres east of the capital, Dhaka.

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