Dozens missing after boat sinks in Bangladesh

Scores of people are missing after a ferry carrying about 100 passengers sank in a river in Bangladesh, officials say.

Police said there were no immediate reports of casualties after the ferry, MV Sarosh, went down on the River Meghna in Munshiganj district, 32km south of the capital, Dhaka, on Friday.

"So far we have gathered that the ferry was carrying around 100 people and some have swum to the banks," local police chief Jahangir Hossain told AFP news agency.

District administrator Saifuddin Badal said that more than 50 people were still unaccounted for.

"We heard around 25 people have swum ashore," he said.

Badal said the boat was carrying passengers from Dhaka to the southeastern district of Chandpur.

Officials said it was not overloaded.

It was not immediately clear what caused the accident but Bangladesh, a delta nation of 153 million people, has a history of boating disasters as a result of lax safety standards and frequent overloading of vessels.

Last March, more than 100 people were killed after a passenger vessel sank in the Meghna river after colliding with a cargo ship.