DHAKA: India’s coast guard was on Monday launching a search for some 600 fishermen who have not made contact after a storm overnight in the Bay of Bengal.

An Indian official said, reports The straits Times.

About 40 trawlers have not returned to port following the storm off the coast of West Bengal in eastern India, an official from a fishermen's association said.

‘We have been trying to contact the trawlers,’ Fishermen’s Welfare Association chief Bijan Maity said.

‘All our efforts were in vain because of the inclement weather and storm,’ he told media.

The coast guard was preparing to search for the trawlers using a boat and an aircraft after receiving ‘distress calls’ from the association about the fishermen, an official said.

BDST: 1803 HRS, AUG 04, 2014