6 missing Andhra fishermen, rescued from WB after 18 days

The six fishermen, who had gone missing from here on June 15, were rescued today from near the coast between Odisha and West Bengal, officials said.
After 18 days of intense search operations, a Coast Guard team this morning traced the fishermen about 200km off shore to the Haldia Port in West Bengal, a senior official of the maritime security agency said.
The condition of one of them is said to be serious, while the remaining five are fine, Coast Guard Commandant N K Ramba said.
While, S Nagur and T Nagaraju hail from Machilipatnam and the remaining four - K Venkateswarlu, K Chittibabu, K Jalaiah and Katu Jalaiah belong to Nellore district, Backward Classes Welfare Minister Kollu Ravindra told PTI.

All of them had ventured into the Bay of Bengal from Machilipatnam fishing harbour on June 15 in a mechanised boat. Two days later, they sent a message to the boat owner informing him that they were stuck in the sea and sought his help, Ravindra said.
The boat owner then sent another boat to rescue the fishermen. The government also conducted rescue and search operations with the help of Coast Guard and Navy teams.
The Commandant requested the Andhra Government to send some officials to the Haldia port for co-ordination.
"All the six fishermen were shifted to a Coast Guard rescue ship. The condition of one fisherman is said to be serious, while remaining five are in healthy condition. We are making efforts to hand them over to the administrative officials as soon as possible," Ramba said.