At least seven people, including three children, were killed as a speeding microbus carrying family members of an expatriate plunged into a roadside canal in Begumganj upazila of Noakhali district on early Wednesday.
The family members who survived the incident alleged that the microbus driver was sleeping before the crash.
The driver fled the spot soon after the incident.
The deceased are 鈥� Mim, 2, Lamia, 9, Reshmi, 10, Kabita Begum, 30, mother of Mim, Laboni Begum, 30, Khurshida Begum, 55, and Foyzun Nesa, 80.
Farid Uddin, assistant director of Noakhali Fire Service, said that two of the deceased were identified as Oman expatriate Bahar Uddin鈥檚 wife Kabita and his daughter Mim, residents of village Chopalli under Hajjirpara in Lakshmipur district, reported United News of Bangladesh.
Chowmuhani fire service station officer Md Mozammel Haque said that the accident took place at about 5:30am when the microbus lost control on Noakhali-Lakshmipur regional road in Jagadishpur area and fell into Wapda canal in Chandraganj Dakshin Bazar of the upazila.
Five out of 11 people in the microbus soon after the accident got out of the vehicle, he said.
All women trapped inside the vehicle and died at the spot, he continued.
On information they went to rescue and recovered the bodies and microbus from the canal, Mozammel also said.
He also said that the bodies were handed over to the Chandraganj highway police.
Chandraganj highway police officer-in-charge Mobarak Hossain said that among the five people who survived the accident, the driver escaped after the accident.
鈥楾he relatives who survived alleged that the driver was sleepy,鈥� he said and added that none of the people who survived got admitted to the hospital as they got slight injuries.
The bodies were sent to a hospital for post-mortem examinations and a case would be filed with Begumganj Police Station in this connection, he added.
UNB also reported that Bahar Uddin, husband of Kabita and father of Mim, returned home from Oman on Tuesday night while his family members went to Dhaka to receive him and they were returning home by the microbus.
