A paddle steamer along with around 80 passengers ran aground on an underwater shoal in Kirtonkhola River near Kauwar char in Barisal city early today due to dense fog.

The Khulna-bound steamer from Dhaka, PS Mahsud, got stuck on the shoal around 5:30am after a number of passengers disembarked at Barisal Launch Terminal, informed Abul Kalam Azad, manager of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) in Barisal.

Currently some 100 passengers are on the steamer, the manager told our Barisal correspondent.

"If the steamer cannot be rescued in the tide, a rescue vessel will be sent," the BIWTC official informed.

Further details could not be known immediately.