Naval divers Saturday evening found the wreckage of the fishing boat which was hit by a tanker off Alappuzha coast resulting in the death of two Kerala fishermen even as the search for three other missing persons continued.
A 10-member Navy's diving team from the Southern Naval Command here reached the location where the collision had occurred and found the wreckage of Don-1 lying at the bottom of the sea at 47 meteres with boats cabin damaged and fuel still leaking, am Indian Navy press release said.
However, the hull was relatively intact. The boat was also enveloped by a maze of fishing nets making it hazardous for the divers to attempt entering it in fading light.
The divers would continue tomorrow efforts to locate possible bodies of any missing fishermen inside the boat, it said.
Naval authorities had deployed INS Sarvekshak fitted with side scan sonar capable of detecting underwater objects to the area yesterday to locate the sunken boat.
Navy and Coast Guard ships, meanwhile, continued the search for the three missing fishermen, official sources said.
The collision in the wee hours of Thursday had happened within two weeks after two fishermen were shot dead allegedly by marines onboard Italian merchant ship Enrica Lexie.