KOCHI:Two fishing boats were destroyed after they lost control in the rough sea and rammed the seawall near INS Dronacharya, the naval gunnery school in Fort Kochi, on Thursday morning.
Six fishermen, who were on board these boats, survived the accident with minor injuries. Another fishing boat, which also ran aground on the seawall at the same time, managed to return to Vypeen Harbour safely.
The accident occurred around 9.30am. Two inboard engine fishing boats — Thampuram and Vallarpadathamma — owned by Joshy, a fisherman in Vypeen lost control in the strong was waves amid the inclement weather.
The survived fishermen were identified as Bhasi, Sajeevan P V, K V Sajeevan, Joshy Siddharthan, Anish and Vijeesh. It was ‘Thampuran’, with three fishermen on board, lost control first and rammed the Dronacharya seawall. In order to rescue the fishermen, ‘Vallarpadathamma’ approached the seawall. But the boat was caught in the turbulence of high waves and lost control before crashing on to the seawall a few metres beside ‘Thampuran’.
Owing to the impact of the crash, both boats suffered severe damages and within no time they both sank. The waves pushed the boats continuously onto the rocks and both vessels were broken into pieces.
All the fishermen managed to hold grip on the rocks of the seawall and were later helped by the Navy personnel to get back to the shore safely. All of them suffered minor injuries after hitting the rocks and they were given first aid. The Navy informed the police about the accident and police took statement from the fishermen.
The accident has caused huge financial loss to the boat owner as the engines, fishing nets etc were destroyed. The wreckage of the boats will be removed later.
