Rohingya crisis: At least five people drown after boat capsizes

Villagers warn 'many more are feared dead'

Rohingya refugees walk to the shore after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border by boat through the Bay of Bengal in Teknaf, Bangladesh (REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain)

A trawler carrying dozens of Rohingya Muslims fleeing Burma has capsized and at least five people have drowned in the Bay of Bengal, police in Bangladesh have said.

Police official Yakub Ali said residents of Shah Porir Island recovered five bodies from the water on Wednesday morning, hours after the boat capsized around midnight.

Mr Ali said he believed the boat was carrying about 35 people when it overturned, but could not say how many were missing or had made it to shore.

Villager Mujibur Rahman said he had helped recover some of the found bodies and "many more are feared dead."

It was not immediately clear where the boat began its journey, or if the passengers had been among some 450 detained by Bangladeshi border guards and ordered to return to Burma.

While some border guards were letting refugees across the borders, others were sending them back.

Burma's leader Aung San Suu Kyi has blamed "terrorists" for "a huge iceberg of misinformation" on the violence in Rakhine state but made no mention of the nearly 126,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled over the border to Bangladesh since 25 August.

The leader of the Buddhist-majority nation has come under pressure from countries with Muslim populations over the crisis, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of the risk of ethnic cleansing and regional destabilisation.

In a rare letter expressing concern that the violence that has raged for nearly two weeks in the northwestern state could spiral into a "humanitarian catastrophe", Mr Guterres urged the UN Security Council to press for restraint and calm.

The latest violence in Rakhine state began when Rohingya insurgents attacked dozens of police posts and an army base.

The ensuing clashes and a military counter-offensive have killed at least 400 people and triggered the exodus of villagers to Bangladesh.

Burma has been laying landmines across a section of its border with Bangladesh for the past three days, two government sources in Dhaka told Reuters, adding that the purpose may have been to prevent the return of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence.