– missing five feared dead
The bodies of four of the nine persons who went missing from the deadly boat collision on the Mazaruni River on Tuesday have been recovered, leaving five more to be retrieved by a multi-agency team that have been deployed to the area.
Police on Thursday announced that the bodies of Zahir Baksh, 34 of Kaneville, EBD and Christopher Narine, 21 of Parika, EBE were recovered. The body of 39-year old Ulric Grimes was recovered shortly after 10 o’clock Wednesday night near Itaballi, Mazaruni River while that of Jermaine Calistro, 27 of Boodhoo Housing Scheme, EBE was found the previous night.
Persons familiar with the area say that community is a short distance from Crab Falls where the collision occurred Tuesday afternoon.
Grimes’ wife said that her husband’s body was positively identified by close family members. The body was being transported to Parika.
The father of six had been returning from Puruni when tragedy struck about 25 miles upstream from Bartica. His youngest child is 2 years, 10 months.
The first body recovered was that of Jermaine Calistro’s several hours after Tuesday’s accident, no one else has been found dead or alive.
Director General of the Maritime Administration, Claudette Rogers said Operation ‘Hawk Eye’ has now moved from rescue of survivors to the recovery of bodies.
She said representatives of MARAD, the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Region Seven Administration would be stationed at a camp near Marshall Falls to continue recovery efforts.
“They are going to be stationed there for the next four days or more because the objective here is to recover because it is anticipated after three days, they (bodies) are likely to raise at whichever location and so we want to recover and hand them over to the families,” Rogers said.
The Director General of MARAD accompanied Maritime Minister Robeson Benn, Public Service Minister Dr. Jennifer Westford and other officials to the site earlier Wednesday during another search and rescue operation.
Benn, who has been visiting the area since the incident, said aerial searches were conducted earlier Wednesday. “An aerial search was made this morning, there are also searches underway by MARAD (Maritime Administration), the Coast Guard, relatives of the missing, the regional administration people, [they] are all involved in a search and recovery effort at the moment,” the minister said.
