Six ship crew missing as India cyclone kills eight

Rescuers in southern India searched on Thursday for six tanker crew missing after their lifeboat capsized as a cyclone slammed into the coast overnight, forcing thousands to flee and killing eight.

The crew of the Pratibha Cauvery oil tanker was forced to abandon ship when it ran aground on the southern edge of Chennai, and one sailor was confirmed to have drowned.

The ship, which had unloaded its oil in Chennai port, was stranded on a beach close to the shore on Thursday as three helicopters and small vessels took the 15 remaining crew members ashore.

“One sailor is dead and we are searching for six other crew members,” Jayraman, a disaster management official in Chennai, who only uses one name, told reporters.

Shipping authorities had reported that the Pratibha Cauvery was not badly damaged and that a plan to refloat it was being drawn up, he said.

The overall death toll from the cyclone reached eight, with thousands of people also forced to flee from coastal towns to seek shelter in schools and government buildings.

One other person drowned, two were killed when a wall collapsed, one person was electrocuted and three died when a tree fell on their hut.