PARAMARIBO, Suriname (CMC) –Rescue teams in Suriname are continuing the search for four Guyanese nationals, now feared dead, after a fishing boat sank in the Saramacca River near Lareco on Saturday evening.

The Saramacca River is regarded as a key waterway for the Maroon communities who live along its banks and who use it for transportation and trade.

The police said that they had received a report early Monday morning that the crew were floating on ice cubes. They said that the caller had indicated that people in the area had used their boats to search for the four people, without success.

The National Army Marine Corps, and the Groningen police were also deployed in the search.

The wife of the boat owner reported that her husband and three crew members were missing. She did not provide the names of the crew members.

According to her, her husband departed from the mooring at Huwelijkszorg on Friday evening, October 17, in a recently purchased and renovated fishing boat, heading for Paramaribo, for a mandatory seaworthiness inspection by the Maritime Authority and the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LVV).

She said that on Saturday morning, her husband, identified only as RL, called her to say the boat was taking on water and they were floating on ice. The call was abruptly cut off.

Later that evening, he called again and asked her to quickly write down the coordinates because “he wouldn’t make it.”

According to authorities, the location she gave turned out to be more than 100 kilometres offshore, in the direction of the Atlantic Ocean.

The police public relations department said that the search is continuing.