Woman jumps from ferry into Padma, rescued alive after 3.5 hours

A woman who jumped from a moving ferry into the Padma River was rescued alive three and a half hours later by locals. According to rescuers, she had drifted approximately 30 kilometres downstream, holding onto water hyacinths for life.

The woman, Mosammat Laizu (39), was rescued from the Kabirpur Char area of North Channel Union in Faridpur Sadar upazila around 10:30pm on Saturday (July 25). She was initially kept under the care of local Union Parishad member Sarwar Hossain. Upon receiving the news, river police arrived at the scene and handed her over to her family on Sunday.

Earlier, around 6:45pm on Saturday, Laizu had jumped from the ferry 'Comilla' on the Paturia-Daulatdia route. She is the wife of Forqan Mia, a resident of Ashrafabad Jhauchar in the Kamrangirchar area of Dhaka.

The master of the ferry 'Comilla', Abdus Sattar, said the ferry departed Paturia ghat for Daulatdia ghat around 6:30pm. After crossing a red buoy in mid-river, a crew member informed him that a female passenger had jumped into the river after speaking on her mobile phone.

He said the ferry was immediately stopped and a search was conducted using searchlights, but she could not be found at that time. The woman was travelling alone on the ferry.