KOCHI: Police probing the fire on Wan Hai 503 ship have sought DNA and fingerprint data of the four missing crew members from the shipping company.

The Fort Kochi coast police, which is investigating the case, is awaiting information from the shipping firm to complete the identification procedure after the body of a foreign national washed ashore at Arthunkal recently. It was on June 9 that the Singapore-flagged ship on its way to Mumbai port from Colombo caught fire around 44 nautical miles off Kannur coast. As many as 18 crew members were rescued. However, four members are still missing.

“The search and rescue operation for the four missing crew members has been called off due to no further result. However, we suspect a dead body washed ashore at Aruthunkal was of a crew member who is an Indonesian national. But no confirmation could be made and we haven’t received any details of the missing crew either,” an officer said.