28 January 2015, 07:50 GMT
MOSCOW, January 29 (Sputnik) — Emergency workers rescued 32 Bangladeshis in the Bay of Bengal after a boat capsized some 2.5 kilometers offshore, however there are still many unaccounted for, Agence France Presse reports, citing local police.
"Around two dozen people are still missing. The coast guard and police are continuing their rescue operation," local police chief Masud Alam said. "The rescued passengers told us that the boat had up to 60 people aboard."
Alam added that all the passengers were Bangladeshi and were heading to Malaysia illegally.
100 people are believed to have been on board when the vessel went under amid strong currents near the Bangladeshi island of Kutubdiya.
Thousands of poor Bangladeshis and ethnic Rohingya refugees from Myanmar try to migrate to Malaysia every year on a perilous and sometimes fatal 3,200-kilometer journey.
