A Bangladeshi barge ferrying fly
ash capsized in the Hooghly river near Kulpi in South 24- Parganas district on Thursday morning while returning to the neighbouring country, a police officer said.
All the eight crew members of the vessel were rescued and quarantined, said Santosh Kumar Mondal, Additional Superintendent of Police, Sundarban police district.
This is the second such incident in a month after a barge laden with fly ash sank in the river on March 12 while going to Bangladesh.
Mondal said the vessel Tofa Arif 4 was returning to Bangladesh after loading fly ash at Kolaghat in East Midnapore district on Wednesday night when it was caught in a storm.
"The crew members said they anchored the barge at a spot but another vessel collided with it and its anchor was snapped. Water also started gushing in and the ship started drifting," he said.
Early on Thursday, they noticed that the ship has been stuck near the Tyangra 'char' (sandbar) and they took a boat to reach the sandbar, the police officer said.
"The barge sank during high tide," Mondal said.
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