West Bengal boat mishap victims remain untraced, search to continue

Hopes of tracing the 18 missing passengers of a boat that sank in the Rupnarayan river almost faded today, with speedboats and divers searching for them in vain in West Bengal's East Midnapore district.
    
Authorities, however, said the search would continue for some more days.
    
"We will wait five or six days before abandoning the search. None of the bodies have found," chief secretary Asok Mohan Chakraborty told reporters.
    
He said that there was a chance that the bodies would float to the surface within 72 hours.
    
The boat also remains untraced even as locals were using fishing nets to recover the bodies.
    
Altogether, 20 speedboats and 22 divers from the Coast Guard, the BSF, Kolkata Police River Traffic wing, Kolkata Port Trust were continuing the search.
    
Two hovercraft have also joined the search, the chief secretary said.
    
Civil defence personnel were waiting in boats at different points to spot bodies before they were washed into the sea.