A passenger ferry carrying more than 200 people has sunk off the coast of western Myanmar leaving at least 21 dead and 26 missing, police said today.
The "Aung Takon" went down late yesterday after leaving the town of Kyaukphyu on its way to Sittwe in western Rakhine state.
"We have got 21 dead bodies, 2 men and 19 women. About 26 passengers are still missing," a police officer in Sittwe town who requested anonymity told AFP.
Three navy boats and a host of private vessels were sent to scour the area after news emerged that the ferry had gone down shortly after 8.30 pm (local time, Friday).
Many Myanmar citizens living along the impoverished nation's lengthy coastline and flood prone river systems rely heavily on poorly maintained ferries for transportation.
In recent years Rakhine state has been the departure point for thousands of desperate Muslim Rohingya who crowd onto small and dangerously overcrowded boats to escape persecution, often aiming for Thailand and Malaysia.
Communal violence between Buddhists and Rohingyas swept through the region in 2012 leaving at least 200 dead.
Referred to by the government as "Bengali", they are largely seen as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even if many can trace their ancestry in the country back for generations.
Many of those vessels are barely seaworthy and some are known to have never reached their destination.
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