THE Indian Coast Guard and the Indian Navy on Sunday intensified the search for 22 crew members of a Panama-flagged bulk carrier that sank in the Bay of Bengal off the Odisha coast, officials said. There were 24 crew members in the ship, and a joint search operation involving three Indian Coast Guard ships and an Indian Navy aircraft rescued two of them within hours of the incident on Saturday. The two survivors, both Chinese nationals, were being brought ashore by a ship. However, there was no trace of the 22 crew members or the ship more than 24 hours after it sank, officials said.

 

The ill-fated vessel, MV Ocean Winner, was carrying iron ore from Odisha’s Paradip port to China when it sank. It had sailed from Paradip on August 20 with 24 crew members -- 20 Chinese, three Myanmarese and one Bangladeshi, officials said. In a statement, the Andaman and Nicobar Command of the Indian Navy said sustained monitoring and focused aerial searches by a P-8I aircraft led to the detection of two floating life-rafts and an oil slick near the reported position of the vessel. “Currently, two survivors have been safely rescued by MV AOSPOS and are under medical care,” it said.