The International Organisation for Migration, IOM, has said that at least 15 people drowned when a boat carrying Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar capsized in the Bay of Bengal on Thursday.

"The bodies of nine children, five women and one man were recovered off the shores of Ukhiya, Bangladesh, near the village of Shamlapur," the IOM said in a statement.

"Approximately 100 people were on the boat that capsized Thursday evening, and the majority of them were children," a survivor told the IOM.