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Seaman killed in tugboat accident

DUBAI — A seaman died, but eight of his colleagues were rescued by the frogmen of the Dubai Police Rescue Operations Department, when the tugboat they were working in capsized near the offshore ‘The World’ project in Dubai on Friday. The man, who was not identified, was said to have died due to lack of oxygen in the engines room where he was working.

The Command and Control Room at the General Department of Operations at Dubai Police was tipped off on Friday at 3pm that a tugboat with nine crew on board capsized off the Dubai coast, while it was towing a ship laden with big-sized rocks.

Marine Rescue Operations team moved immediately to the place of the accident, and helped the eight seamen, who managed to come out of the sinking boat, according to First Lieutenant Yahya Hussein Mohammed, from the Rescue Operations Department.

The captain of the ship, when interrogated, said the man — who later died — was trapped in the engine room. He further said: “We heard him knocking the door in a bid to get out, and after a while, he stopped knocking. We found it difficult to reach the room and help the man get out.”

The body of the man was fished out the next day due to darkness and poor visibility.