Indian Navy ships worked through Wednesday night, using searchlights to trace any movement in the pitch dark waters, as they looked for survivors from a barge that sank in the Arabian Sea four days ago. 37 crew members of Barge P305 are still missing as hopes of finding more survivors began to recede on Thursday.
The Navy on Thursday morning launched a fresh aerial search and rescue mission, deploying helicopters to scour the waters off Mumbai coast, where the accommodation barge P305 went adrift in Cyclone Tauktae fury before it sank on Monday.
As many as 37 personnel on board the barge are dead and 49 still missing. Navy personnel, battling extreme weather, so far have rescued 186 of the 261 people who were on board the barge P305 and two personnel from tugboat Varaprada.