Bhubaneswar: Two of the 24 crew members of the Panama-flagged cargo ship MV Ocean Winner, which sank off the Odisha coast, were brought ashore at Paradip on Thursday after being rescued from the sea, officials said.
"Indian Coast Guard Ship (ICGS) Varad safely brought two Chinese survivors -- Pan Tonglai and Chen Jianhe -- to Paradip today. Rescued from a liferaft on August 22, both received medical care onboard during transit," Indian Coast Guard Commandant Amit Uniyal said.
The two survivors were handed over to the company's authorised representatives in the presence of officials from the Bureau of Immigration and local police, he said.
"Coordinated sea and air search operations continue in full swing to locate the remaining missing crew members. MRCC Sri Vijaya Puram is continuously coordinating with all participating assets in the ongoing rescue efforts," Uniyal said.
Following the vessel's sinking, the Indian Coast Guard and the Indian Navy launched a joint search-and-rescue operation.Two sailors were rescued from the sea while they were floating in liferafts.
Later, the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), Beijing, joined the search and rescue operation, which has been expanded to cover a wider area, sources said.
The two rescued sailors were provided medical treatment onboard the Coast Guard vessel after being pulled from the sea, officials said.
However, there was still no trace of the remaining 22 crew members, they said.
Around 7 a.m. on August 25, ICGS Varad located a lifeboat of MV Ocean Winner in the search area. A boarding team inspected the lifeboat but found no survivors.
Twenty of the 24 crew members are Chinese nationals, three are from Myanmar and one is from Bangladesh.