Barge tragedy: 66 dead, 20 missing; Navy deploys diving teams to look for bodies

With no trace of nine personnel from barge P305 and 11 from tugboat Varaprada six days after Cyclone Tauktae fury rendered the vessels adrift the Navy on Saturday undertook an underwater search for the wreckage of the two vesselsThe death toll on P305 rose to 66 with the recovery of six more bodies during the day a Navy spokesperson saidThe Navy also deployed specialised diving teams to boost the search and rescue operations SAR for the barge and the tugboat off the Mumbai coastSo far 66 mortal remains have been recovered The SAR ops are continuing through the night Underwater search for wrecks of barge P305 and tug Varapada using specialised teams and equipment is in progress the official said in a statementAlso read Barge tragedy Cops go for DNA testing of 30 bodies to establish identity says officialTo augment the ongoing SAR ops for the missing crew of Barge P305 and Tug Varaprada specialised diving teams onboard INS Makar with sidescan sonar and INS Tarasa sailed out early morning today from Mumbai the spokesperson tweetedThe Navy and the Coast Guard continued the search for the nine missing personnel from the barge and 11 from Varaprada even as hopes of finding more survivors of the Cyclone Tauktae fury receded an official saidOf the 261 personnel who were on barge P305 186 have been recovered so far 66 are dead and nine are missing Of the 13 persons on Varaprada two have been rescuedWhile all the 440 persons on barges Gal Constructor and Support Station 3 SS3 and drillship Sagar Bhushan were brought ashore to safety Naval and Coast Guard vessels and aircraft scoured the waters off the Mumbai coast as the search and rescue operations entered the sixth day on SaturdayStruggling to establish the identity of almost half the victims of the P305 barge tragedy police have initiated the process of conducting the DNA testing of the bodies an official said on SaturdayA Mumbai Police spokesperson said the Navy has handed over the bodies recovered so far to the city policeBarge P305 which housed personnel engaged in maintenance work of an offshore oil drilling platform of staterun oil and gas major ONGC sank on Monday evening off the Mumbai coast during the cyclone The barge had gone adrift in the cyclone fury before sinkingSome bodies are decomposed some others have deep injuries and therefore they are beyond recognition the official saidBlood samples of the deceased and their immediate relatives are being collected and sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory at Kalina in Mumbai he saidAfter the samples are matched the bodies will be handed over to the respective family members he said adding that the DNA sampling process is expected to be completed in the next three daysRTPCR tests to ascertain whether the victims had COVID19 infection were also conducted he saidMumbai police have also announced they will conduct a probe as to why the illfated barge remained in the turbulent area despite warnings about cyclone Tauktae an official said The police have also registered accidental death reports in connection with the death of the personnel on the bargeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever