DHAKA, 17 October 2007 — At least 100 people were feared drowned after an overcrowded ferry capsized in southern Bangladesh yesterday, officials said.

Witnesses said more than 100 people, many holidaymakers, were trapped in the sunken vessel.

The ferry with about 250 people on board was caught in a tropical storm in Shariatpur district, nearly 85 km south of the capital Dhaka, officials said.

Meanwhile, a powerful rainstorm also killed at least 18 people in mudslides and house collapses and injured 100, officials said yesterday.

A woman and her two children were among those killed in a mudslide at Betbunia in the southeast.

Weather officials said nearly 225 mm of rain fell overnight in Chittagong port city, severing road links with the Chittagong Hill Tracts further to the southeast.

The storm originating in the Bay of Bengal made landfall around Monday midnight, a weather official said, adding more rains were forecast across the country over the next couple of days.

At least 20 fishing boats were reported missing at sea, police said.

Streets in Chittagong were under knee-deep water, forcing authorities to shut down offices and schools, a resident said by telephone from the city.

Normal life was also disrupted at Cox’s Bazar, the country’s main tourist resort, following the rainstorm.

50 Hurt as Militants Attack Concert

At least 50 people were injured in an attack on an Eid concert by a militant group in eastern Bangladesh.

The musical program was in progress in the eastern Habiganj district when some 30 people belonging to the “Resistance Committee Against Anti-Shariah Activities” attacked the singers and audience.

The Baniachang unit of the Udichi cultural group had organized the event. Witnesses said the attackers chanted slogans, attacked the audience and the artists on the stage and threw musical instruments on them, leaving at least 50 people injured.

The Udichi cultural group has come under attacks in the past by extremists describing its activities as un-Islamic. The group has filed a case with Baniachang police.

During former Prime Minister Hasina Wajed’s government, seven people were killed in two bomb explosions at a music festival in southern Jessore district.

The blasts in a crowd of several thousands attending the festival had left dozens injured.