INS Nireekshak continues underwater search for 6 missing fishermen off Mangaluru coast

New Delhi: Indian Naval Ship (INS) Nireekshak continued its underwater search on Saturday to find six fishermen who have been missing since their boat collided with a foreign cargo vessel off the Mangaluru coast on Tuesday, Navy officials said.

They said the bodies of three fishermen that were recovered on Friday were handed over to the local authorities in Mangaluru on Saturday.

There were a total of 14 fishermen on Indian fishing boat Rabah when it collided with Singapore-registered vessel MV APL Le Havre around 41 nautical miles west of the Mangaluru coast on Tuesday.

While two of the 14 were saved by the Singaporean vessel’s personnel immediately, three bodies were recovered a little later on Tuesday itself.

INS Nireekshak was pressed into action on Friday and it recovered three more bodies after a couple of hours of search operation. These three bodies were handed over to the local authorities in Mangaluru on Saturday, Navy officials said, adding that the search for the remaining six fishermen continues.

INS Nireekshak is a diving support vessel that can undertake deep sea diving operations using specialised equipment and naval divers.

Other Indian naval ships Subhadra and Tillangchang, along with an aircraft from the naval air station in Goa, have also been deployed since Wednesday to search for the missing fishermen, the officials noted.