A boat carrying about 110 Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims from neighbouring Myanmar sank in the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday as they were heading to Malaysia and about half of them were missing, a Bangladeshi border force officer said. The boat went down in rough seas off Teknaf, the country's southernmost town, on the Bay of Bengal, Lieutenant-Colonel Mohammad Jahid of the border guards force said.
"So far, 51 people have been rescued by coast guard, fishing boats and the border force's sea patrols," he told Reuters. Jahid said search operations were proceeding for the others. No bodies had been recovered yet. "We were heading to Malaysia for jobs but the boat suddenly went upside down and sank," survivor Jamir Hossain told Reuters. "I floated for several hours before a fishing boat picked me up."