By IANS
Bhubaneswar : A 49-year-old Philippine crewmember of a foreign ship has gone missing from an iron-ore laden ship that was anchored at the Paradeep port in Orissa, a port official told Sunday.
Police and port officials came to know about the incident after Laranjo Jeremish L., captain of the Panama ship “Luminovs Halo” informed the police about the missing crewmember, Leonardo Mangosing.
“The captain (of the ship) informed that the crewmember fell down from the ship while he was testing a pilot ladder and might have drowned in the sea,” R.K. Paikray, an officer of Paradeep police station, told IANS.
According to the police, the ship was anchored 20 km from the port, about 130 km from capital Bhubaneswar.
The missing crewmember had boarded the ship two months back at a port in Australia along with 20 others.
“Police, immigration and custom officials checked the ship to detect the presence of the missing crewmember but could not found him alive or dead,” said Paikray.
“The police have also informed the ministry of external affairs, home departments of the state and central governments and officials of the Philippine embassy in New Delhi about the missing crewmember,” he added.
The ship sailed to China Sunday morning after taking 26,000 tonnes of iron ore from the port.
Four months ago, a crewmember from Ukraine had also gone missing at Paradeep.
Last year, the port officials and police here had detected the presence of a Pakistani stowaway in a foreign ship.