- Wednesday, September 27, 2023
By: Pramod Thomas
A Bangladeshi sailor has been killed in an attack on his vessel in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Olvia, the state shipping company said Thursday (3).
The Banglar Samriddhi, a bulk carrier, arrived in the country on February 22, a day before Russia invaded, and has since been unable to leave.
Pijush Dutta, executive director of the Bangladesh Shipping Corporation, told AFP that the vessel was hit in a “rocket or bomb” attack on Wednesday.
The third engineer was killed and the bridge caught fire, he said, but the remaining 28 crew — all Bangladeshis — were still on board.
“The fire has been brought under control,” he added. “Other crew in the ship are safe.”
The ship had been due to bring clay to Bangladesh for the country’s booming ceramics industry but has been unable to depart Olvia as there were fears mines had been laid in the channel to the port, he said.
There was no comment from Dhaka’s foreign ministry.
Asiful Islam Asif, one of the crewmembers, made an impassioned video appeal for help, saying reports of their evacuation to Poland were incorrect.
“Please rescue us,” he said in a video message aired by the Bangladesh private Channel 24 television station.
(AFP)
