Missile parts found near West Bengal's Digha coast: Could this be behind mystery explosions?
Missile wreckage has been found by fishermen from the sea near East Midnapore's Digha coast today. There were reports of loud explosions from the same area two days ago.
On Saturday morning, around noon, loud explosions in sea off the Digha coast in West Bengal jolted the seaside towns of Digha and Tajpur. The explosions were so powerful that sonic booms shattered window panes and cracked the walls of hotels in Old Digha. The explosion was also heard from Tajpur, a tourist site at least 18 km away from Digha, a policeman told the Hindustan Times.
The source of the explosion remained a mystery. Until today.
Indrajit Basu, Kathi additional superintendent of polic, told News World, "We have carried out search all over Digha and neighbouring areas for the source of the sound, but have not been able to spot anything. This makes us suspect that the blast took place somewhere in the sea. We have alerted the India Coast Guard to try find out the source of the blast."
It's been two days and there were no reports of the Indian Coast Guard figuring out the source of the blast. There have been speculations of missile tests being conducted from the missile testing range at Chandipur on Odisha coastline, 50 km from Bengal coastline, and one of these, by mistake, landing close to Digha.
Today, fishermen sailing in the Bay of Bengal close to the Digha coast near East Midnapore found what looked like parts of a missile. Here are some photos of the missile wreckage found.
A report on the Times of India said that the explosion was due to a military exercise involving the indigenous Astra air-to-air missile from Russian-origin Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft and that in the evening, Indian Air Force sources confirmed that Astra missiles were being test-fired over the Bay of Bengal, the same time the explosions were heard.