Trawler Carrying Salt Sinks Meghna River in Bhola

A trawler carrying 300 tons of salt sank in the Meghna River in Bhola after being hit by a ship. Seven people on board the trawler were rescued alive. However, the salt spilled into the Meghna River.

The incident took place in the Meghna River in the Tulatuli area of Bhola Sadar Upazila at around 2:30 am on Friday night.

Trawler Majhi Md. Belal Uddin Majhi and worker Md. Aziz said that yesterday, Thursday morning, they loaded 300 tons of salt on the trawler MV Diloa-3 from Kutubdia in Cox's Bazar and set off for the Jail Khana Ghat in Khulna.

They reached the channel in Chattogram in the afternoon, had lunch and set off again. At around 2:30 pm, they reached the Meghna River in the Tulatuli area of Bhola and fell into dense fog. At that time, a ship hit their trawler. As water started entering the trawler, they started driving it towards the shore.

The trawler sank as it approached the shore. At that time, the 7 passengers on the trawler got ashore in another small boat. However, the trawler's boatman said that none of them were injured or missing in the incident. They claim that about 50 lakh taka of damage was caused in the incident.

Upon receiving the news, members of the Coast Guard South Zone reached the scene at 1 pm. They are trying to rescue the sunken trawler.

Syed Ashikur Rahman, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Bhola's Ilisha Naval Police Station, said that members of the Naval Police went to the scene after receiving the news. Efforts are underway to rescue the sunken trawler, he said.