By Costas Paris

The Indian navy has recovered 26 bodies off Mumbai and rescue teams are searching for at least 50 people after a barge with hundreds of oil workers on board sank during a cyclone.

Rescuers said the vessel was carrying 261 people who worked for India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. The workers were deployed for offshore drilling when Cyclone Tauktae hit and the barge's anchors gave way amid winds of about 100 miles an hour.

At least 90 people have died in India from the cyclone, which swept in from the Arabian Sea on Monday. Defense Ministry officials said rescue teams on navy ships, helicopters and surveillance aircraft were searching for the missing workers.

In a second operation, a navy helicopter rescued 35 workers from another ONGC-operated barge in the same area.

"We're still looking out for people in the area. We should be optimistic. Right now the conditions have improved. Hopefully, the worst is behind us," Captain Sachin Sequeira, of the INS Kochi navy destroyer, which is participating in the rescue, told local news media.

Rescued workers said they spent many hours at sea hanging on to debris.

"The barge was sinking, so I jumped into the sea," one worker told India's ANI news agency. "The navy ship picked us up after 11 hours."

Afcons Infrastructure Ltd., the company that had chartered the barge, said in a statement that "an intensive search and rescue operation including helicopter search operations are ongoing to locate and rescue the missing personnel."

A navy spokesman said the barge was hit by 25-foot waves amid low visibility and high winds.

The cyclone left a trail of destruction in the state of Gujarat with dozens of buildings damaged and scores of trees and electricity poles uprooted. About 200,000 people were evacuated from the area amid a fresh wave of Covid-19 infections that have overwhelmed local hospitals.

Write to Costas Paris at costas.paris@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-20-21 0556ET