11 crew missing
Bangladeshi ship tilts in Andaman
Eleven crew of a Bangladeshi cargo ship remain missing after the vessel tilted in the Andaman Sea yesterday, some 30 nautical miles off the Phuket Island in southern Thailand.
The MV Hope fell into trouble early yesterday in the rough sea near Thailand's Phuket Island, said Md Shafiqul Islam, principal officer of the Mercantile Marine Department, adding, the ship was heading for Chittagong Port with 5500 tonnes of ball clay.
As the ship had started to tilt, all the 17 crew of Bangladeshi origin abandoned it fearing that it would capsize, said Shafiqul.
The rescuers of Thailand Navy -- who immediately launched the rescue operation with rescue ships, speedboats, and helicopters -- rescued six of them.
The rescued are Md Abdul Hakim, Moklesur Rahman, Abu Bakkar Siddique, Md Rubel, Md Osman, and Saiful Islam.
Eleven others, who jumped into the sea with lifeboats, remained missing till filing of the report as of 8:00pm, said Captain Mohiuddin Abdul Kadir, who was keeping contact with the rescuers on behalf of the ship owner's firm Trade Breeze Shipping Limited.
The missing crew are Rajib Chandra Karmakar, Md Mahbub Morshed, Mubarak Hossain, Faizur, Kazi Saifuddin, Md Najam Uddin, Mushfiqur Rahman, Chadim Ali, Nasir Uddin, Ali Hossain, and Nasir Uddin.
They were yet to be rescued after several hours of the search operation, Kadir added.
The MMD principal officer said the cargo goods inside the ship had been displaced due to the rough condition of the sea, which might have contributed to the tilt.
The MV Hope left Port Lumut of Malaysia on July 2 with the cargo, and was scheduled to reach Chittagong Port by July 8.
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