Over 6,000 missing Bangladeshi fishermen return safe

Over 6,000 fishermen, who went missing in the Bay of Bengal along with 600 trawlers during sea storm on Saturday night, returned to the southern coastal district of Patuakhali Wednesday.

The Independent Thursday quoted trawler owners as saying that 16 fishermen on board 10 boats were feared dead.

In the southeastern Cox's Bazar, some 200 fishermen were still missing with 20 trawlers in the district and its offshore islands since the Saturday's sudden storm in the deep of the bay.

Local fishermen suspected that many of the missing fishermen might be driven away to the Indian coast during the 20-hour storm in the sea.

In Patuakhali, it was reported that most of the fishermen of the missing trawlers were rescued from the Indian Digha coast.

The tidal surge caused by the influence of the depression also washed away a number of big trees and shops in the coastal areas, Xinhua reports.