14 people were killed by a ship carrying Rohingya refugees off the coast of Bangladesh

At least 14 people were killed and seventy others were rescued after a ship carrying Rohingya refugees drowned off the coast of Bangladesh, local authorities said.

At least 14 people were killed and seventy others were rescued after a ship carrying Rohingya refugees drowned off the coast of Bangladesh, local authorities said.

Authorities in local Bangladesh said Tuesday morning that at least 14 people were killed while about seventy others were rescued in a shipwreck carrying Rohingya refugees off the coast of Bangladesh.

Coast Guard spokesman Hamid al-Islam told Agence France-Presse that about 130 people were on board the fishing boat that was trying to cross the Bay of Bengal heading to Malaysia. He added that seventy of those were rescued.

Many members of the Rohingya Muslim minority, 700,000 of whom fled Burma to Bangladesh for fear of violence in 2017, are trying to flee the overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh with ships to Malaysia.