Dubai: The Dubai Maritime Rescue Department rescued two men after their boat capsized near the World Islands in Dubai on April 5, police said on Wednesday.
Lt Col Ahmad Atiq Burqibah, deputy director of the Search and Rescue Department at the General Directorate of Transport and Rescue at Dubai Police, told Gulf News that the operations room received a call from a fishing boat at 10.27pm.
“The caller said they saw two men in the middle of the sea,” he said, adding that earlier that day there were warnings to avoid the sea because of bad weather.
“A land patrol and a maritime patrol were immediately dispatched to the location indicated by the caller and the maritime patrol boat reached the two men within seven minutes of the call,” Lt Col Burqibah said.
The two men, one Emirati and one from Comoros Islands, were found alive and wearing life jackets. They were taken back to the nearest port, where an ambulance took them to Rashid Hospital for treatment.
The Emirati man’s condition was categorised as “minor” and the other man’s as “moderate”.
A local Arabic newspaper had quoted the two men saying that they had been swimming for six hours before being rescued.
They claimed that it took Dubai Police 45 minutes to reach the site where the boat capsized, saying that means they swam a huge distance.
“Our teams did not go the site where the boat capsized. However, it is true that the men were not at the site where their boat capsized and, according to their description, the boat capsized near the World Islands, which is maybe 10-13 minutes away from the shore,” Lt Col Burqibah told Gulf News.
He added that these numbers are not definitive because the team did not get to the boat and “it is not part of our operations, we rescue people. Other departments are responsible for removing the sunken boats.”
