13 useless after naval speedboat hits ferry off Mumbai

Not less than 13 individuals are useless and two others are lacking after an Indian navy speedboat rammed into the facet of a ferry off the coast of Mumbai, officers mentioned.

Three navy personnel had been among the many useless, whereas greater than 100 folks had been rescued, Maharashtra state Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis mentioned.

Footage of the incident posted on-line confirmed the speedboat spinning round earlier than colliding with the ferry, which then capsized.

The Indian Navy mentioned there was an “engine malfunction”. An investigation has been ordered to find out the causes of the collision, in response to native media.

The non-public ferry was heading to the Elephanta Caves, a well-liked vacationer vacation spot, when it was hit by the speedboat round 4:00 p.m. native time (11:30 GMT) on Wednesday.

Search and rescue operations for the final two lacking passengers continued at noon on Thursday.

“A navy craft present process engine testing misplaced management and collided with a passenger ferry,” the navy mentioned, including that it regretted this “tragic loss” of human life.

Gautam Gupta instructed the Instances of India that he initially thought the speedboat was performing stunts and was filming it from the deck when it crashed into the ferry.

One other passenger who was on board instructed media that he swam for quarter-hour earlier than one other boat got here to his rescue.

Arif Bamane, who was one of many first rescuers on the scene, mentioned requires assist got here from all instructions.

The state of affairs was horrible, he mentioned, and people on board had been unable to grasp what had occurred.

Survivors instructed native media that ferry workers gave no directions following the collision, leaving passengers to scramble to security on their very own.

A navy official, who wished to stay nameless, instructed the BBC that ferries and speedboats observe clearly marked routes and that there’s sufficient area within the port to keep away from doable collisions.

The precise particulars of what occurred will change into clear as soon as the naval speedboat is recovered, he mentioned.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi provided his condolences to the households of the victims of the incident and described the incident as saddening.

He additionally introduced 200,000 rupees ($2,352; £1,869) for the households of the deceased, in addition to 50,000 rupees for these injured within the accident.

That is the second incident of this kind in a month. The primary occurred on November 22, when two folks had been reported lacking after a submarine collided with a fishing trawler off the coast of Goa.