About 1,000 fishermen along with nearly 100 trawlers went missing in the high waves of the Bay of Bengal, ANTARA quoted a local official as saying in the fishing port Barguna in southern Bangladesh. Local administrator Selim Khan said the missing fishermen were caught in an unexpected storm which whipped up high walls of water in the bay early Friday. Khan said hundreds of fishermen went to the bay at the advent of the autumn fishing season. "There were about 1,200 fishermen on the missing trawlers," Golam Mustafa Chowdhury of the Barguna Fishing Trawlers` Association said. Survivors said several trawlers were damaged by the tropical squalls. A rescue operation has been mounted by coast guards and fire brigade divers, DPA reported.
