KARACHI: A Philippines national was found dead inside a ship berthed at Port Bin Qasim, Karachi, according to police and rescue officials said on Thursday.
According to the Port Health Establishment, a shipping agent made a call and informed the authority about death on board ship Carmencita at 8pm on December 1. The ship berthed at Port Bin Qasim at 9:30am on December 2.
As per the death certificate issued by Port Bin Qasim, the 65-year-old deceased was identified as Begaso Raul. A cardio-respiratory arrest has been declared as the cause of death by the port health officials.
Keamari Senior Superintendent of Police Fida Husain said officials had been informed that the 65-year-old was found dead in the cabin of the ship. The deceased was a member of the ship’s crew, the officer added.
Docks police officer Rana Waseem said the ship had travelled to Karachi from Norway. He said there were apparently no injury marks on the body of the deceased, who was the vessel’s chief engineer.
The port officials said they have sought from the captain of the ship all necessary health documents of the deceased including his version and the history of events preceding the death. Port authorities allowed the ship to berth once the captain overruled the threat of the spread of any communicable disease.
The body of the deceased was moved to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) for postmortem examination. SSP Janwari said police had been informed that the man died of natural causes. “We are trying to verify it,” the officer added.