COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Three people were killed and seven others went missing when a boat sank in the Bay of Bengal near a Bangladesh island on Tuesday, police said.

Forty others were either rescued or swam to safety.

The boat sank soon after it had sailed from Moheskhali Island, some 375 km (234 miles) southeast of the capital Dhaka, for the nearby Kutubdia island.

Police said it sank due to overloading, for which they have detained an operator of the boat.

Scores of people die or go missing in boat sinkings in Bangladesh every year. (Reporting by Mohammad Nurul Islam; Writing by Nizam Ahmed; Editing by Jerry Norton)

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