Search on for man missing at sea

Dubai: A 21-year-old Emirati is missing and an Indian fisherman drowned after a ship hit their fishing boat last week, the missing man's relative said.

Six other Indian fishermen were rescued after nearly 23 hours in the water, he said.

The uncle of the missing man believes that his nephew, Walid Ali Mohammad, is still alive.

"If he had drowned, his body should have come up floating as it has been one week now. There is no trace of the body so far," said Mahmoud, the uncle.

One fisherman said that they were hit by a vessel carrying huge cranes on Saturday and their boat sank. He said the vessel did not stop to check what had happened.

Drowned

"I saw the vessel coming towards our boat at 10am. It was impossible that it did not see us because our boat is not that small," he said.

Six of the fishermen and Walid were sitting on the deck at the time. The man who drowned was inside the boat.

His body was later found by the coastguard.

The fishermen hung on to their boat debris for 23 hours until a fishing boat coming from Sharjah rescued them.

"Nobody told us about the incident until Monday when we received a call from the port police station," Mahmoud said.

"We want to know if he is alive or dead. We want the authorities to search for the body in neighbouring waters," he said.

Mahmoud contacted the forensic laboratory to check whether they had found Walid's body, but they told him they had a body of a four-month-old baby which they had found on Tuesday.

The broken down fishing boat was tugged to Seer Bani Naeer Island by the coastguard.

Mahmoud said Walid did not know how to swim and the boat did not have any safety facilities.

According to an official from Coast Guards the search operation is still ongoing, and they have taken a copy of Walid's passport and ID Card.