Watch: Indian Coast Guard rescues nine fishermen with burn injuries from sea

All nine fishermen jumped into water to escape but some suffered severe burn injuries.

Hyderabad: In a swift operation, the Indian Coast Guard ship, Veera, which was on patrol off the Andhra Pradesh coast saved nine fishermen who had suffered severe burn injuries after their boat caught fire and sunk at sea on Friday, according to a coast guard spokesman on Saturday.

The ICGS Veera had received a radio message from nearby fishing boat about a raging fire onboard Indian fishing boat (IFB) Durga Bhavani at location around 65 Nm from Visakhapatnam harbour. IFB Durga Bhavani, an Andhra registered boat, had sailed from Kakinada harbour with nine crew on Marh 26. On Friday, the boat had a fire incident resulting in explosion of Gas cylinder on board.

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All nine fishermen jumped into water to escape but some suffered severe burn injuries in the process.

The fishing boat, damaged due to explosion, sank at the location within a few minutes.

The information regarding fire and explosion was relayed to Coast Guard ship by a nearby boat, who proceeded to pick up the survivors.

Sensing the urgency of situation, ICGS Veera proceeded at top speed, reaching the location within a few hours to provide assistance to the survivors.

All nine survivors were shifted to ICG ship where they were provided first aid by a medical team.

Meanwhile, Coast Guard District Headquarters No. 6 in coordination with Joint Director of Fisheries in Visakhapatnam arranged ambulances along with medical teams to evacuate critically injured IFB crew. All the injured fishermen were shifted to King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam for further treatment.

Due to swift response by ICG ship, the entire rescue mission was completed Coast Guard within a short span of six hours. Indian Coast Guard is the lead agency for providing assistance to fishermen at sea as well as the national coordinating agency for Search and Rescue at Sea.