Hope fades for 37 missing on barge
Indian Navy ships worked through the night using searchlights to trace any movement in the pitch dark waters to recover the bodies of 37 people aboard a barge that sank off Mumbai as Cyclone Tauktae lashed the region this week, an official said on Thursday.
Hopes were fading for 38 people still missing since the cyclone hit on Monday.
The Navy on Thursday morning launched a fresh aerial search and rescue mission, deploying helicopters to scour the waters off Mumbai coast, where the accommodation barge P305 went adrift in Cyclone Tauktae fury before it sank on Monday. Navy spokesman Mehul Karnik said five ships, a surveillance aircraft and three helicopters were involved in the search.
As many as 49 personnel on board the barge are dead even as navy personnel so far rescued 186 of the 261 people who were on board the barge P305 and two personnel from tugboat Varaprada.
Naval ships INS Kochi on Wednesday morning and INS Kolkata late on Wednesday night brought the bodies of the victims to Mumbai, the spokesperson said. Chances of finding more survivors are looking bleak, another official said.