Dubai, July 01: At least one person died and 29 others, including Indians, went missing after a commercial vessel capsized off the coast of Qatar, officials said on Wednesday.
The ‘Damas Victory’ boat, which belonged to Dubai-based Demas Marine and was hired by Qatar firm HBK Power Cleaning, sank about two nautical miles off Doha early yesterday, a spokesman for Qatar’s Ministry of Interior said.
Five persons were rescued and one body was recovered while search for the remaining people was underway. Among the rescued were three Indian nationals.
A spokesman for HBK said the “work vessel” was used by his company to provide “support services” to the petroleum industry. “The tragedy occurred at 6.30 am when the ship was carrying out its normal mission at the entrance of the Doha canal,” the Interior Ministry official said.
Giving details of the nationalities of their employees, the HBK official told the local media that 12 of them were Nepalese, 11 Indians and one Bangladeshi.
Indian Ambassador Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa cited official sources to say that at least 19 Indians were on board the vessel when it went down. The embassy had been in touch with Qatar Coastguards to learn about the latest developments, she was quoted in the local media as saying.
—Agencies