Friday, June 3 2005 10:13 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Haldia: Four charred bodies suspected to be of the captain and his family have been found on board the gutted ship M V Faiz by the Coast Guard, while another crew member remained untraced during overnight search operation.

Coast Guard Commandant, West Bengal, G Singh said the bodies were found late last night (Jun 2, 2005) in the devastated upper deck of the Kolkata-bound ship from Yangon and are believed to be those of Captain P B Shelly, his wife and two children who were among the five reported to be missing since the ship caught fire yesterday.

The chief officer of the ship, who was also missing, had possibly jumped into the water but could not take the life jacket and is still missing, he said.

Ten crew members of the ship, which was carrying a consignment of pulses and reported to be missing since May 30 by Shipping Corporation of India to the Coast Guard, had been rescued after it reported the fire about 150 nautical miles from Haldia yesterday.

Singh said rescue operations to trace the missing person was still on and two Dorniers and Coast Guard vessels 'Chandbibi' and 'Jijabai' had been deployed from the morning.