Navy joins search for fishermen missing off Mangaluru coast
Two rescued fishermen have been shifted to safety ashore and three bodies have been recovered so far.
The Indian Navy has deployed surface and air assets for the search and rescue of missing fishermen at sea off the coast of Mangaluru, the ministry defence said in a statement on Wednesday. Three fishermen were killed and nine went missing after a fishing boat collided with a foreign vessel off the coast of Mangaluru early on Tuesday.
The statement added that the two rescued fishermen have been shifted to safety ashore and three bodies have been recovered so far. The search is on for the remaining nine fishermen, the statement said.
Watch: Indian Navy divers recover 3 fishermen’s bodies off Mangaluru coast
“It was reported that an Indian Fishing Boat ‘IFB Rabah’ with 14 fishermen embarked had suffered a collision with a Singapore flag merchant ship ‘MV APL Le Havre’, 40 nautical miles west of New Mangalore at about 0200 hours (2 am) on April 13. Indian Naval Ships Tillanchang and Kalpeni along with naval aircraft from Goa were deployed in the area to augment SAR efforts of Coast Guard vessels,” read the statement from the ministry.
“To assist in the rescue efforts INS Subhadra, a patrol vessel was sailed from Karwar with a Diving Team embarked. The ship arrived on the scene in the early hours of April 14. Two specialist diving teams are undertaking snagline search in the area in an effort to locate the sunken fishing craft,” the statement added.
C K Jaffar, the owner of the mechanised boat Rabah from Beypore in Kerala, on Tuesday said the delay in the rescue had resulted in the death. “The Singapore cruise liner which hit the boat alerted Coast Guard officials. Coast Guard began the search in the morning. Delay resulted in the loss of lives,” he said.
On Tuesday, the rescue operations were led by the Indian Coast Guard with the help of local fishermen. The two rescued have been identified as Sunil Das of West Bengal and Velu Murugan of Tamil Nadu. Seven of the fishermen are from Tamil Nadu and the remaining from West Bengal and Odisha.
Meanwhile, the Mangaluru Police said that as per the preliminary information, the boat set sail from Beypore in Kerala. Officials in Kerala police said that Rabah had 14 fishermen on board.