india

Updated: Mar 19, 2019 04:41 IST

A 53-year-old man is missing, while six others were rescued after a tugboat carrying them capsized around 12 nautical miles off the Mumbai coast, on Monday. The tugboat, called Revti, and its crew, were hired on a contract basis to work on a sewage pipeline installation in Tarapur, Palghar.

The owner of the tugboat, Ravi Kiran Iyer, 47, identified the missing person as Abdul Azeez. He is a resident of West Bengal and has been working on the vessel for the past eight months. At the time of going to press, a search for Azeez was still on. It is still unclear what caused the accident.

The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) said they received an emergency call at 10:50am. “We reached the tugboat around 11am. We were able to rescue six of the crew members from the sinking vessel, but one person is missing,” said Vineesh Krishnan, the spokesperson and deputy commandant, ICG. The vessel was recently repaired, according to Iyer. “I spent Rs 70 lakh to repair the tugboat a few months ago. It seems something major happened and it capsized,” he said.

An ICG ship ‘Amartya’, a fast patrol vessel on a surveillance mission, was the first to respond to the emergency call. It was diverted to undertake the search and rescue operation.

“One more ICG ship conducted a surface search for the missing crew member, while a Chetak helicopter did a sea-air coordinated search,” Krishnan said.

The condition of the rescued members is stable. They will be investigated by the Yellow Gate police station, the ICG official said.

Those rescued are Rashid Qasim Sorathiya, 38; Toni Chalak, 22; Ramesh Keni, 55; Dilip yadav, 29; Shanu Kumar, 19; and Saleem Siddique.