As fire continued to rage on and explosions rocked the Singapore-flagged ship off the Kerala coast on Tuesday, authorities issued an oil spill advisory while a Chinese engineer rescued from the burning vessel suffered critical injuries.
He had taken charge as the 25th director general of the Indian Coast Guard on July 19 last year.
Containers from a Liberian cargo ship that sank off the Kerala coast have started washing ashore, prompting authorities to urge the public to stay away from them. The ship carried 13 hazardous cargos, including calcium carbide, which reacts with seawater to release highly flammable acetylene gas. The Indian Coast Guard is leading pollution response efforts and monitoring the spread of the oil slick.
The death toll on barge P305 that sank in the Arabian Sea four days ago rose to 49 on Thursday with the recovery of more bodies even as the Navy and the Coast Guard continued the search for the 26 personnel missing from the barge and 11 from anchor boat Varaprada, as hopes of finding more survivors of the Cyclone Tauktae fury receded.
It looks unlikely that a proper plan was in place or else the deaths could have been averted, reports Jyoti Mukul.
