On the morning of March 15, a local fishing boat capsized near the Bashan island in Bangladesh and the crew fell into the sea, according to local officials, who said employees of POWERCHINA Harbor Co successfully saved the five fishermen and helped them tow their boat ashore.

At the construction site for the expansion project of the Bashan Island dyke, operators on duty with POWERCHINA Harbor Co suddenly watched tragedy unfold in the distance and heard an urgent call for help.

The operators found a local fishing boat had overturned and capsized, drifting in the water and all the crew had fallen overboard.

POWERCHINA saves five local fishermen after their boat overturned in Bangladesh. [Photo/POWERCHINA]

Bashan Island is located at the estuary of the Padma River in the Bay of Bengal. The surrounding waters were turbulent, the wind were strong and waves were large during the incident. The fear was that fishermen who fall into the water could drown.

Responding to the emergency, captain Pang Baoguo immediately assembled a crew on board to prepare life buoys and life jackets and rescued the local fishermen.

When the rescuers arrived, the fishermen had been in the sea for about an hour.

On March 16, the families of the five fishermen and the fishing company wrote a thank-you letter, expressing their gratitude to POWERCHINA Harbor Co.

They thanked the Chinese employees for their willingness to help them and tow the fishing boat, which saved them major economic loss.

The thank-you letter written by families of the five fishermen and the fishing company to POWERCHINA Harbor Co. [Photo/POWERCHINA]

Bangladesh is a country with a relatively backward transportation infrastructure. Due to its heavy water network and waterway traffic, many nautical accidents occur every year.

A spokesman said that POWERCHINA in Bangladesh has always attached great importance to water transportation and construction safety. Each project department has repeatedly organized emergency training that covers such events as personnel falling overboard and employees have repeatedly rescued local people who have fallen into the water.

On Sept 22, 2019, POWERCHINA employees successfully saved more than a dozen people in a speedboat collision and overturning in the main channel of the Padma River, including a young couple and their children.