More than two dozen people were rescued or swam to safety after the boat sank while making a 3-kilometer (2-mile) trip between villages on a lake in Sunamganj district, government administrator Babul Miah said from the area, about 180 kilometers (110 miles) northeast of the capital, Dhaka.

Rescuers recovered 12 bodies from the site, including those of six girls heading to school, he said. They were searching for nine people listed as missing, he said.

Rainstorms are common in Bangladesh, a tropical delta nation of 150 million people.