YANGON: At least 50 people are feared dead after a packed passenger ferry crashed into an oil barge in an area of Myanmar that was hit by a devastating cyclone last year, local officials said on Tuesday.

The accident happened late Sunday when the wooden boat carrying nearly 180 passengers was travelling along the Ngawun river in the southern Irrawaddy Delta, the officials said.

"The boat sank after colliding with an oil barge. We have recovered 34 bodies and there at least another 16 people missing who are believed to have drowned," said an official in the area on condition of anonymity.

"The other passengers were rescued from the water and have gone back to their home villages," the official said, adding that the vessel was travelling between the towns of Pathein and Thetkelthaung when it sank.

The Irrawaddy Delta was the area that suffered worst when Cyclone Nargis hit southern Myanmar in May 2008. The catastrophic storm killed around 138,000 people and left thousands more homeless.

Most people living in the low-lying region -- the least developed part of impoverished Myanmar -- rely heavily on poorly-maintained river ferries for transportation around its flooded plains.

At least 38 villagers were killed when a boat sank in the delta region in July 2008.