Six dead, 200 missing in Bangladesh storm

Six fishermen drowned and about 200 others were missing after a powerful storm sank at least 20 trawlers off Bangladesh’s southern coast, officials and survivors said today.

Rescuers found three bodies along the southern Cox’s Bazar coast, senior police official Ataul Kibria said. Villagers found three other bodies earlier today on Maheshkhali island in the Bay of Bengal.

At least 17 fishermen had been rescued after their boats capsized in waves that reached 40 feet high, survivors said.

Boat owners reported at least 20 vessels missing since the sudden storm moved in yesterday. Survivors said several boats were stranded in the deep sea and were unable to navigate through high waves and strong winds.

Kibria said rough seas prevented rescue workers from searching for about 200 missing fishermen.

“The sea is so choppy and rough that we can’t go out there,” Kibria told The Associated Press in Cox’s Bazar, a resort town 185 miles south of the capital, Dhaka.

The wreckage of three wooden trawlers was washed ashore by the tides, Kibria said.

Nurul Amin, an owner of one of the lost trawlers, said only four of the 11 men on his boat returned home safely.

Hundreds of family members thronged Cox’s Bazar beach in search of relatives.

All survivors were being treated at a state-run hospital in the town for minor injuries and fatigue, local administrator Saifuddin Ahmed said.

The storm – spawned by a monsoon depression in the Bay of Bengal – lashed Cox’s Bazar and neighbouring Teknaf coastlines, causing flooding in low-lying areas, officials said.

A rescue official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was hopeful that many of the missing were able to swim to small islands that dot the coast, or were rescued by other boats.