A frantic search continued off India’s eastern coast on Sunday after a Panama-flagged cargo ship carrying 24 crew members sank, leaving two Chinese seafarers rescued and 22 others missing, a senior official said.
The rescued sailors told authorities that the vessel began listing on Friday and went down in just eight minutes, leaving the crew no choice but to abandon ship, Shyam Jagannathan, director general of India’s Maritime Administration, told Reuters.
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Jagannathan said the likelihood of locating survivors typically drops sharply after 12 hours, but search teams were pressing on with the operation.
The missing crew members from the Ocean Winner include 18 Chinese nationals, three Myanmar nationals and one Bangladeshi, according to the Indian Coast Guard.
The Indian Navy said it was working closely with the Coast Guard to find the remaining sailors in a post on X.
Two Coast Guard vessels have been dispatched from Sri Vijaya Puram, the city formerly known as Port Blair, for the search-and-rescue mission, a Coast Guard spokesperson said.
The Ocean Winner had loaded iron ore for delivery to China and left India’s eastern Paradip port on Friday, according to an initial report compiled from India’s Maritime Administration.
Government sources said the ship sank roughly 240 nautical miles from the port.
Authorities had not immediately determined what caused the vessel to sink.
Additional reporting by Disha Mishra in Bengaluru; Writing by Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan
