Body washed ashore in Kerala, suspected to be of missing crew from cargo ship that caught fire

Thiruvananthapuram: A body washed ashore at Alappuzha in Kerala on Tuesday is suspected to be that of one of the four missing crew of the Singapore-flagged ship Wan Hai-503 that caught fire in the sea off Kerala coast on June 9.

According to the police, the body of a male aged around 50 was washed ashore at Ayiramthai beach near Arthungal in the district on Tuesday morning. The body was shifted to the medical college mortuary.

A container and a life boat from the ship had washed ashore at Alappuzha on Monday. Hence the suspicion is that the body that washed ashore is that of one of the missing crew members. Information regarding the body was being circulated by the police to identify the deceased.

The ship that was going from Colombo to Nhava Sheva Port in Mumbai was having 22 members in the crew when it caught fire. While 18 of the crew were rescued, four including two Taiwanese, one from Indonesia and one from Myanmar were missing. The incident happened at 88 nautical miles from Beypore in Kozhikode.