Dhaka: About 100 people are still unaccounted for after a ferry with 200 passengers on board capsized in a river southwest of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, the chief of the district administration said.

Low-lying Bangladesh, with extensive inland waterways and slack safety standards, has an appalling record of ferry accidents, with casualties sometimes running into the hundreds.

Overcrowding is a common factor in many of the accidents and each time there is an accident the government vows to toughen regulations.

Mohammad Saiful Hasan Badal, deputy commissioner of Munshiganj district, said about 100 passengers had been rescued from the vessel after it went down in the Padma river.