The death toll from an accident in the Kutubpur area in Shibchar upazila of Madaripur has risen to 19, with two people succumbing to their injuries while undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Seventeen of the deceased have been identified as Md Ismail, 38, Hedayet Mia Bahar, 42, Farhad Sikder, 30, Anadi Ranjan Mandal, 42, Mostak Sheikh, 30, Sajib Sheikh, 26, Sweety Akhter, 22, Kabir Sheikh, Afsana Mimi, 20, Masud Khan, 32, Sheikh Abdullah Al Mamun, 42, Chinmoy Prasanna Mandal, Mahadev Kumar Sadhu, Ashraful Alam Lincoln, Rashed Sardar, Zahid and Minhaz Biswas, 22.
Around 30 people were injured after a Dhaka-bound bus veered off the approach road to the Padma Bridge and crashed into a ditch on Sunday morning.
Minhaz Biswas, 22, the supervisor of the bus, and Sweety, 20, a second-year student at the English department of Dhaka University, were among the dead. The identities of the other deceased could not be known immediately.
Seven of the injured were receiving medical care at DMCH, said Inspector Bacchu Mia, in-charge of the hospital police outpost.
Bangla TribuneThe fire service and police, accompanied by locals, were carrying out rescue and recovery operations, Shibchar highway police station OC Abu Nayeem Md Mofazzel Huq said, adding that the injured had been taken to local and Dhaka hospitals, depending on the severity of their injuries.
Speeding might have caused the accident, said the police officer.
Several reports claim that the driver of the Emad Paribahan bus lost control of the vehicle, causing it to roll into the ditch.
Up until 8:15am, 14 dead, including the driver, had been pulled from the wreckage of the bus, and three more passed away en route to the hospital.
The bus departed from Khulna's Fultala bus counter at 4am and travelled to the Shibbari Royal Hotel intersection and Shonadanga bus stop before leaving for Dhaka with 43 passengers, according to media reports.
After hearing of the disaster, several relatives were stopping by the Emad Paribahan counter at the bus stop to ask about their loved ones.
Our DMCH correspondent, Aminul Islam Babu, contributed to this report
