Twelve fishermen had a miraculous escape after being stranded in the high seas for six days off the coast here. The fishermen, whose boat had developed a snag, were finally saved by the rescue boat of the coastal police and the fisheries departmentThe fishermen, belonging to Kerala, Karnataka and Assam, reached Azhithala boat jetty by 4 am on Wednesday. They had started their fishing trip on the boat Al Ameen’ from Malpe in Karnataka on 25. The propeller of the boat soon broke and was lost in the waters. With no way to steer the boat,the fishing workers were stranded in the vast sea about 160 nautical miles off the coast. Workers ofwere stranded in the vast sea about 160 nautical miles off the coast. Workers of other fishing boats in the area noticed the boat adrift and realised that an accident had occurred. They informed the coast guard of the incident. A coast guard boat soon rushed to the scene and attempted to rescue the fishermen. But the fishermen refused to abandon their boat, insisting on tugging it to the shore Following which, coast guard officers contacted district collector K Jeevan Babu On the directive of the collector, the rescue boat operated by the coast guard and fisheries department was deployed. The stranded boat was tugged to 45 nautical miles off the coast by Priya’, a boat from Mangaluru, from where the rescue boat took over. The fishermen who landed at Azhithala jetty are, Muthappan (30), Jan Edison (31), Albert (64), Jayapal (21) and Sunil (37) of Kanyakumari; Suresh (21) and Bepson (37), of Vizhinjam; Baby John (37) of Poonthura; Bellarmin belonging to Thiruvananthapuram; Johnson (48) and Joby (32) of Thoppumpady; and Assam native Sijindas (19). The personnel of the rescue boat included Manu, Dhaneesh, Narayanan, K Kannan and CPO Unnirajan. Al Ameen’ belongs to an Ernakulam native.
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