Fishing boat sinks after colliding with debris from submerged wrecks near Kochi, India

Indian media reports that a fishing vessel with 48 people on board sank after it struck debris from two submerged shipwrecks off the city of Kochi in Kerala state on Wednesday, September 1.

The incident occurred at 05:30 local time on Wednesday when the fishing vessel St Antony accidentally collided with debris from two vessels that had sunk in the same waters of the Kochi shipping channel near Vypin island.

Good Samaritans on other nearby fishing boats immediately sailed to the area within minutes of the sinking and pulled all 48 fishermen out of the water. No injuries have been reported.

The debris that caused the sinking has been traced to a vessel that sank in the third week of May of this year and from a second vessel that sank in the late evening of Tuesday, August 31, just hours before the incident involving St Antony.

Local fishers’ unions have since requested officials of Cochin Port Trust, which oversees activities in the Kochi shipping channel, to facilitate the removal of the wrecks and their debris from the waters to prevent the occurrence of similar mishaps in the future.

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