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30 feared drowned in BD boat capsize

DHAKA: Rescuers on Sunday continued to search for victims of a boat capsize in southeastern Bangladesh, which local officials feared killed some 30 people, mostly Burmese Rohingya refugees.

The boat carrying 150 refugees capsized early on Saturday after becoming caught in a fishing net in the bordering Naaf River, near Teknaf town, an official in Cox's Bazar said by telephone on Sunday.

Some 100 other people swam to safety, he added.

Police and paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles, who continued the search operation, rescued seven people and recovered 15 bodies, mostly those of children, the official said.

The official said newspaper reports that some 50 people had been killed were innacurate.

The district Some 50,000 Muslim Rohingya refugees, who fled their homes in 1991 alleging persecution by Burmese troops, are still sheltered in camps in several southeastern Bangladeshi districts bordering Burma.-AFP