Dhaka  - Divers recovered 12 more bodies from the Kirtankhola River Sunday, three days after a ferry capsized in Bangladesh's southern Barisal district, raising the death toll to 39.

"We have handed over 12 more bodies to the relatives who were in search of the missing passengers," an official at Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority in Barisal said. "A few more" people were still missing, he said.

The boat, carrying more than 100 passengers, sank Thursday in the middle of the river near Beltala, some 275 kilometres south of Dhaka, when a sand-laden cargo vessel hit the back of the ferry.

The ferry, the ML Happy, was on its way to Patarhat from Barisal port. The vessel was recovered Friday, with several bodies aboard. A total of 27 bodies had been recovered by late Friday by divers.

A small number of passengers managed to swim ashore. Initially, officials at the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority had estimated that some 80 people were missing.

Ferry accidents are frequent in Bangladesh, a Ganges Delta country crisscrossed by thousands of rivers and their tributaries which lacks monitoring of safety standards and lax application of existing laws.

Overloading of vessels well beyond the allowable limits is a frequent cause of ferry accidents. dpa