The Hindu : Front Page : Fishing boat destroyed in blast at Beypore

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Sunday, Sep 18, 2005

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Fishing boat destroyed in blast at Beypore

Staff Reporter

Gelignite sticks might have triggered off the explosion, say police

REMAINS OF THE DAY: A view of the fishing boat that was destroyed in a powerful explosion at Beypore fishing harbour on Saturday.

KOZHIKODE: A fishing boat anchored at the Beypore fishing harbour, 12 km from Kozhikode, was destroyed in a powerful explosion on Saturday morning. No casualties have been reported in the incident that occurred at 5 a.m.

The explosion took place inside a fibre fishing boat anchored at the western end of the harbour. It was destroyed leaving only a portion of the bow and stern of the boat floating on the surface of the water. The cabin of a steel boat that was anchored adjacent to the wrecked one was also destroyed in the impact of the explosion. The incident took place a few minutes before the fishermen, at least 30 in number, were to board the vessel for engaging themselves in deep-sea fishing.

Kozhikode City Police Commissioner H. Venkatesh said that the police had not ruled out the possibility of sabotage. The destroyed boat had stored 200 litres of diesel and a gas stove.

Experts from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Vadakkara, collected samples from the wreckage. Explosive experts from FSL, Thiruvananthapuram, would be here in a couple of days to collect more details. "So far we have gathered no clues to the explosion,'' he said.

However, the police said that samples collected from the wreckage revealed the possibility of gelignite sticks that could have accidentally or deliberately triggered the explosion. Investigation sleuths were gathering more evidences to ascertain their theory. Normally, fishermen carried gelignite sticks in their boats to be used for fishing purposes, sources said.

Usually the fishermen from Beypore utilise a small craft to get them ferried across to the fishing boat anchored in a row at the harbour. Most of them from Chaliyam and Marad go fishing at around 5 a.m. On Saturday a few of them were late forcing the others to wait till their arrived. The delay had, in fact, averted a major tragedy, the fishermen said.

In the explosion, the fibre boat broke into two parts sinking them the water. Only a portion of the bow and stern were seen jutting out of the water. The nets of the fishing boat were blown off at a distance away. Pieces of the net were found attached to a mast of another boat.

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