Three days of storms before usual rainy season batter fishing boats and sweep thousands out to sea

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

Nearly 700 fishermen from Burma are missing after three days of unseasonable storms ripped apart rickety fishing boats in the Andaman Sea.

Rescued fishermen told local media they had held on for days to broken bamboo rafts before being rescued by offshore oil companies, Thai fishing boats or Burmese naval boats.

The Weekly Eleven news journal reported that 15,583 fisherman were rescued after the storms between 14 and 17 March whipped up 70mph winds, battering fishing rafts and trawlers and sweeping thousands of fisherman into the open seas. It said 682 fisherman were missing.

The storms arrived before the usual rainy period and came during the shrimp fishing season, when thousands of fisherman take to the waters on bamboo rafts.

Authorities in the country tend not to report the effects of natural disasters immediately and have been criticised in the past for being slow to send help and humanitarian aid.

The Burmese government has not yet announced an official death toll. The Weekly Eleven journal said three people had died, while another weekly, the Voice, reported over the weekend that 14 fishermen had died in the storms. The actual number is expected to be higher.

The storms hit parts of the Irrawaddy delta, which was devastated by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008. The cyclone left 130,000 people dead.

"At least during Nargis we had enough time, because there was a light drizzle before the strong winds," fisherman Kyaw Lwin, 42, told the Voice. "But this time, in the middle of summer, it happened so abruptly we had no time."

He said he was rescued by a Thai fishing boat after drifting at sea for three days.