At least 60 fishermen, who went out to sea days before the storm and deep depression hit the costal areas of West Bengal, are still missing, a senior official on Saturday.
"We have been able to contact the fishermen and all the 29 trawlers which were reported to be untraced till last two days. But after meeting with fishermen's association, we came to know that four trawlers with around 60 fishermen are still to be traced," said South 24-Parganas additional district magistrate Nilaljan Sandilya.
"We expect that all the fishermen have taken shelter in some safe areas and are waiting for better weather to sail back. Personnel of the disaster management cell, Coast Guard and navy are conducting search operations," Sandilya told IANS over phone.
However, the search has been affected due to bad weather.
"One Indian Navy ship and two of the Coast Guard have been deployed for search and rescue operations. But search operation by Dornier aircraft was affected due to low level clouds and turbulence at low level sea. One more navy ship with Cheetah helicopters will be deployed for search and rescue operation shortly," said defence spokesman Mahesh Upasani.