The toll in the Ockhi cyclone in the State has crossed 50 with the recovery of nine bodies off the coasts off Beypore and Tanur on Tuesday.
Eight bodies were recovered off the coast in Beypore and another off Tanur in Malappuram district during a search carried out by the Coast Guard, the Marine Enforcement Wing of the Fisheries Department, and the Coastal police during the day. The official figure of dead across the State now stood at 54.
The bodies were in a highly decomposed state, Moideen Koya, general secretary of the Fishermen Merchants and Commission Agents Association, who was at Beypore, said.
Eight bodies, retrieved and brought to the Beypore port between 2.30 p.m. and 6.30 p.m., had been shifted to the Kozhikode Government Medical College Hospital for post-mortem examination and other formalities, an official of the Indian Coast Guard said.
Spotted by fishermen
It was the men fishing off Beypore who had alerted the police after they spotted the bodies floating in the sea. The Indian Coast Guard boat C-144 recovered the bodies between six and 10 nautical miles off the Beypore harbour and 15 nautical miles from the Tanur coast.
From Tanur
The lone body retrieved from Tanur was shifted to the Ponnani taluk hospital. The bodies could not be identified.
However, All Kerala Fishing Boat Operators Association State vice president Karikkadi Preman said the deceased fishermen could be from the southern parts of the State, particularly Thiruvanthapuram district. “None from the Malabar region could be among the dead,’’ said Mr. Preman, who is also the vice president of the Harbour Development Committee, Beypore.