Dhaka: About 150 bodies of victims of the ill-fated ferry M V Nasreen-I, which sunk on July 8 have been recovered, media reports said.

The ship had sunk on July 8 near the town of Chandipur, 43 kms South East of Dhaka, leaving hundreds of people missing.

So far around 150 bodies have been recovered from Chandipur and coastal areas of Barisal and Bhola districts, they said.

Several rescue and Naval ships were at the accident site, but rain in the river was hampering attempts to trace the ferry believed to be lying some 60 metres underwater.

A hi-tech ship of Bangladesh Navy has spotted two probable places as the place where the ill-fated ferry M V Nasreen-I could have sunk with nearly 800 people on board. Nearly 300 people have been rescued and around 500 are feared to have died in the mishap, state owned Bangladesh Betar radio said.

Meanwhile, the government of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia decided to act tough against officials and employees responsible for giving the go ahead to the ferry at Sadarghat terminal.

Almost 140 employees are being withdrawn on July 13 from Sadarghat, the biggest ferry terminal in the country for negligence, private television I Channel said, quoting a decision taken by the Ministry of Shipping.

A combination of factors contributed to this fatal disaster, said experts, adding overloading, inefficiency of captains, flawed design and lack of supervision by the government were the reasons for frequent ferry disasters.

PTI