TYPHOON TAUKTAE DEATH TOLL RISES TO 130 IN INDIA

The Indian Navy said it had recovered the bodies of 49 people after a barge sank off Mumbai during a powerful storm that killed 81 others on the country's western coast, Siddhartha Kumar reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

The barge, owned by state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), was carrying 261 people when it sank near an offshore oilfield on Monday evening as Cyclone Tauktae blew ashore.

Navy ships and helicopters, battling extreme weather, managed to rescue 186 people and found 27 more bodies in operations since Wednesday night, raising the toll in the tragedy to 49, navy spokesman Vivek Madhwal told dpa.

Twenty-six people were still missing but the death toll was likely to rise as hopes of finding survivors began to recede, with the rescue operation continuing into its fourth day on Thursday.

Survivors, wearing life jackets, told local media that they were floating in the sea for as long as 12 hours when they were rescued by the navy.

ONGC said the barge was carrying personnel for offshore drilling when it got caught in the storm.

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