Boat capsizes, 3 fishermen go missing and 3 reach ashore

Kolkata: Three fishermen from Sankarpur in East Midnapore went missing in the sea while three others managed to drift ashore on to East Midnapore coast with the help of oil barrels after the boat they were sailing in capsized mid-sea.

The incident took place early Monday morning. The boat a group of fishermen was travelling in developed a snag 10 nautical miles away from the Sankarpur coast in the district. All the fishermen had to jump off the boat in the middle of the sea when it capsized.

Three fishermen were lucky enough that they managed to catch hold oil barrels while

the others went missing in the sea.

Those who grabbed the barrels managed to wash ashore. The sea remained turbulent on Monday and there was an alert issued by the Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore asking the fishermen not to venture into the sea.

The sea remained turbulent in the coastal areas of Digha, Sankarpur, Mandarmani and other beach towns in East

Midnapore for the past two days.

The district administration conducted awareness campaign through microphone in the beach towns urging the visitors not to go to the sea for bathing. There has been additional deployment of police personnel in Digha, Mandarami and many other beach towns to strengthen surveillance along the coast.

According to the preliminary investigation, it is assumed that the boat developed a hole after being hit by strong waves.

Those who have managed to come to the sea shore have been identified as Sukhdev Mondal, Bikash Das, Nandakumar Nanda.

Sukhdev is a resident of Bhupatinagar area while the other two are from Uttar Dihiba in the same district.

The three other fishermen are still missing till Monday evening. A rescue operation was started to trace the missing fishermen.

Meanwhile, the weather office predicted some scattered rainfall in South Bengal districts in the next 24 hours and the sea may also remain turbulent in the next 24 hours. The visitors who went to

Digha witnessed strong wave measuring around 6-8 ft in height.