Nine fishermen who went missing after they ventured into the sea for fishing on Friday night were traced and brought back to the shore by search teams on Monday.
More than 750 trawlers from the fishing jetty here had set out for fishing and all but one boat with five fishermen on board returned on Sunday morning.
As the fishermen did not return till late Sunday evening, the fisheries department issued a search order on Monday and deputed three boats to trace the missing fishermen.
The search teams found the trawler (IND TN 09 MM 2096) stranded near Katchatheevu and the five fishermen safe in the boat. It was stranded after developing a fault in the engine, the fishermen said. One of the boats in the search team towed the repaired boat and reached the fishing jetty on Monday morning, they said.
In another incident, four fishermen who had set out for fishing on Friday night from Mandapam went missing after their boat developed technical snag. A search team found them stranded off Thondi on Monday afternoon and rescued them, fishermen said.