Indian Coast Guard Ship Veera, which was on a patrol off the Andhra coast, saved nine fishermen who had suffered severe burn injuries after their boat caught fire and sunk at sea on April 5.

"The ICGS Veera had received a radio message from a nearby fishing boat about raging fire onboard the Indian fishing boat (IFB) Durga Bhavani at the location around 65 nautical miles from Visakhapatnam harbour," read a statement issued by the Indian government.

IFB Durga Bhavani, an Andhra registered boat, had sailed from Kakinada harbour with nine crew on 26 March 24.

The boat had a fire incident on April 5, resulting in an explosion of a Gas cylinder onboard. All nine fishermen jumped into the water to escape but some suffered severe burn injuries in the process. The fishing boat, damaged due to an explosion, sank at the location within a few minutes.

The information regarding fire and explosion was relayed to Coast Guard ship by a nearby boat, who proceeded to pick up the survivors.

Sensing the urgency of the situation, ICGS Veera proceeded at top speed, reaching the location within a few hours to provide assistance to the survivors. All nine survivors were shifted to ICG ship where they were provided first aid by a medical team.

Meanwhile, Coast Guard District Headquarters No. 6 in coordination with JD Fisheries Visakhapatnam promptly arranged ambulances along with medical teams to evacuate critically injured crew of IFB. All the injured fishermen were shifted to King George Hospital, Visakhapatnam for further treatment. Due to the swift response by the ICG ship, the entire rescue mission was completed within a short span of six hours.

Indian Coast Guard is the lead agency for providing assistance to fishermen at sea as well as the national coordinating agency for Search and Rescue at Sea.