Hopes fading for 38 missing in India after cyclone sinks barge

Navy ships work through the night to recover 37 bodies on board barge that sank off Mumbai, but 38 more still missing.

Indian navy ships have worked through the night to recover the bodies of 37 people on board a barge that sank off Mumbai as a powerful storm lashed the region this week, an official said, as hopes faded for 38 people still missing since the cyclone struck on Monday. Navy spokesman Mehul Karnik said on Thursday that five ships, a surveillance plane and three helicopters were involved in the search. He said most of 188 survivors and the 37 bodies arrived in Mumbai, The Associated Press reported. The barge, with more than 260 people on board, sank after the storm caused by Cyclone Tauktae smashed into the Bombay High oilfield near Mumbai, where India’s biggest offshore oil rigs are located.