Helplessness along the banks of the Meghna River in Bangladesh.<br/> <br />Dozens are feared dead after a ferry carrying between 50 to 100 people collided with a sand barge and sank.<br/> <br />NATS CRYING RELATIVES<br/> <br />Frantic relatives could only watch as rescue workers plucked bodies from the water.<br/> <br />SOUNDBITE (Bengali) MAN WHO LOST HIS WIFE, SAIFUL ISLAM, SAYING:<br/> <br />"My wife and son were coming with this ferry and suddenly it collided with a trawler and sank. My son could swim and survived but my wife could not."<br/> <br />Local officials don't think the ferry was overcrowded.<br/> <br />They say half the passengers managed to swim ashore but for some the human toll of the accident is incomprehensible.<br/> <br />SOUNDBITE (Bengali) RELATIVE WHO LOST FAMILY MEMBERS, BADAL, SAYING:<br/> <br />"I have nothing to say, seven died, seven members of my family all died."<br/> <br />Ferries in Bangladesh are largely unregulated despite vows by the government to crack down on unlicensed operators.<br/> <br />But the vessels often run into trouble in this low-lying network of rivers that form the Ganges Delta, in a country that sees hundreds of deaths in accidents like this each year.
