Bangladesh river toll reaches 148

The number of pople killed in three river disasters in Bangladesh since last Sunday has risen to nearly 150.



Two more bodies were recovered overnight from the Padma river where a ferry sank on Tuesday.

While ferry accidents kill scores of people every year in Bangladesh, they are more frequent at this time of year due to stormy weather.

One ferry capsized in heavy weather last Sunday and a fishing trawler sank on Thursday.

Officials suspect all the vessels were heavily overloaded.

They have given up hope of finding any survivors and are focusing on trying to retrieve and identify bodies.

'Slow progress'

Officials say 148 people are known to have died, but many more are missing.

On the Padma river workers have been trying to drag the ferry to shore so they can make a full search.

"We have managed to attach two lines to the ferry and have dragged it several metres (10 feet)," Lieutenant Commander Mahbubur Rashid of the Bangladesh navy said on Saturday, the AFP news agency reports.

The salvage operation has been dogged for days by strong currents.

In the first sinking on Sunday, 60 bodies were recovered after a ferry went down in Patuakhali in the south of the country.

On Thursday, a fishing boat carrying an estimated 30 passengers sank in the Meghna river estuary in southern Bangladesh.

Rescue workers have given up looking for survivors there, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Correspondents say that fishing boats frequently earn extra money by carrying passengers in Bangladesh, a country which is criss-crossed by rivers and waterways.