Ninety missing at sea in the wake of cyclone Tauktae

(FASTNEWS | MUMBAI) – More than 90 people are missing after a barge off the coast of India’s Mumbai city sank amid a severe cyclone.

The Indian navy said it had rescued 177 of the 270 people aboard and that efforts to find survivors were ongoing.

Three other commercial barges carrying about 700 people are stranded at sea in the wake of cyclone Tauktae, which has battered India’s western coast.

Tauktae weakened after it made landfall on Monday but at least 12 people have already died in the storm.

The stricken barge, owned by India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), was carrying personnel deployed for offshore drilling. When the storm struck, the barge’s anchors gave way and it began drifting.

A spokesman for the Indian navy told the BBC it had dispatched three warships to save those aboard the three stranded commercial barges. Two of the barges are off the coast of Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra state, while the third is off the coast of Gujarat.