Puducherry: Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi today lauded the Indian Coast Guard’s unit here for rescuing a group of 18 persons, who were stranded mid-sea after their mechanised boat developed a technical snag.

“We salute our #Indian Coast Guard. They keep themselves in readiness. It is these self driven and patriotic forces which save us in crisis always,” she wrote on Twitter.

A batch of 18 persons including 15 bird-watchers and from Bengaluru, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and three crew members set out to the sea here on Sunday and were stranded off the coast after the private vessel they had engaged developed a snag.

In a WhatsApp message to mediapersons, Bedi said that “the craft engaged in the activity was not designed to undertake such a passage into deep sea and put human life at risk. But for the professional and undaunting spirit (of Coast Guard) the lives could have been lost.”

The Coast Guard had rescued the group stranded for hours at sea by locating the vessel and towing it back to the shore early yesterday.