Dhaka: Around 250 people, including children, are feared missing after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals capsized in the Andaman Sea, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

"The trawler, which departed from Teknaf in southern Bangladesh and was on its way to Malaysia, reportedly sank due to heavy winds, rough seas, and overcrowding," the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement.

According to officials, the vessel had set off from Teknaf, a key transit point for Rohingya refugees attempting perilous sea journeys in search of better opportunities.

Thousands of Rohingya, Myanmar’s persecuted Muslim minority, risk their lives each year by fleeing repression and civil war, often undertaking dangerous journeys by sea in makeshift boats.

Many of those aboard are believed to have departed from the overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, where more than a million Rohingya who fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state live in harsh and unsanitary conditions.

Rakhine state itself has witnessed intense clashes, as fighting continues between the military and the Arakan Army, an ethnic rebel group, over control of the region.

In a related development, the Bangladesh Coast Guard said that a Bangladesh-flagged vessel, MT Meghna Pride, spotted several people floating in deep waters near the Andaman Islands at around 1 pm on April 9 while en route from Chattogram to Indonesia.

The ship’s crew launched a rescue operation and managed to save nine Bangladeshi nationals, eight men and one woman.

Later, at around 2 am, the rescued individuals were handed over to the Coast Guard vessel Mansur Ali, which was on patrol in deep waters, the release added.