More than a hundred people are still missing after an overloaded river ferry capsized on the Padma River near Dhaka, Bangladesh on Monday.

Authorities said two people have died but fear that many of the passengers might have drowned in the murky waters.

Because of the absence of a manifest, it was not clear how many passengers were on the MV Pinak-6 ferry, but the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority in Dhaka says as many as 200 to 300 people were on board when it capsized.

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Tofazzal Hossain, a local police officer, said about two dozen people managed to swim to the banks of the river, while several others have been rescued.

But eyewitnesses in the area say many more passengers have not been accounted for.

Khokon Mia, one of the passengers rescued, told local television that people on the overloaded ferry were panicking and screaming as the boat started to list.

"There were no life jackets or life boats. I was floating in the water. Some people in a speed boat came and rescued me," Mia said.

Another survivor, Mohammad Suman, told Reuters that two of his brothers and a sister were missing.

"We were five altogether and I and another survived by jumping from the ferry," he said.

The ferry was travelling from Majaripur to Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital.

Many of those on board were returning to the city after Eid al-Fitr celebrations at the end of Ramadan.

The government had sent rescue vessels out to the area to search for the missing passengers.

Locals said another ferry sank in the same spot in March 2012, killing 145 people.

On May 16 this year, a similar ferry sank in bad weather on the Meghna River.

Rescue officials called off the search after finding 45 bodies, although the number of missing passengers was still above 100.

The worst recorded ferry accident in Bangladesh was in 2003 when an overcrowded boat capsized in flood-swollen waters at the area near Dhaka where the rivers Padma, Meghna and Dakatia joined. The death toll was 400 people.