The fire brigade control room said that the authorities are leaving no stones unturned to trace them. Naval divers and Coast Guard choppers were also pressed into action in search of the missing youth. Mobile boats were also deployed off the Aksa beach in the western suburbs of this metropolis, from where they are believed to have been washed away by water currents.

In yet another incident off the Gateway of India in south Mumbai on Sunday, a man and a girl who dared to swim in the ferocious waters, were missing. Over 24 hours of search has not yielded anything and the duo are feared to be dead. Due to odd weather conditions, the fire brigade was not able to locate them.

The fire brigade control room said that in spite of heavy rains accompanied by gusty winds, they carried out an rescue mission on Sunday night using search lights, but the boys could not be located. ''The chances of survival is very less,'' an officer supervising the operations said.

Naval divers from INS Hamla and civic lifeguards carried out a search operation in the rough sea -- but they too failed in finding the unfortunate missing survivors. The Coast Guard also mounted aerial monitoring and since Sunday night carried out several sorties.

''Neither any survivor or any dead body was found,'' a senior Coast Guard official said.

The search and rescue operation is likely to continue till late in the evening. Even the local fisherfolk had joined the rescue mission, but could not succeed in tracing out survivors or dead bodies. Since the weather was calm in the morning, a massive operation was carried out, which will be continued till late in the evening.

Only one of the 13 picnickers, Sailesh Waghela (17), was saved by the life guard of the beach, Rajnikant Malishkar, who had then mustered courage to inform the Malwani police station. Police said that the victims were residents of Kurar village in Malad.

The identity of those who are feared dead were given as Mukesh Yadav (22), Vinod Kava (21), Milind Dhuri (21), Nilesh Waghela (17), Chetan Waghela (14), Prahlad Kadam (21), Jagdish Gohil (24), Hemant More (18), Milind Indukar, Sachin Surve, Srikant Soni and Pramod. While those missing from Gateway are Imran Temrekar (34) and Sidra Sheikh (11).

UNI