KOLKATA - THE Indian Coast Guard said on Monday it was searching for around 300 illegal migrants reported missing after abandoning their vessel near a remote island chain in the Bay of Bengal.

Coastguard officials said 100 people rescued from the drifting vessel had told them that 300 others had jumped into the water to try to swim to shore.

The migrants were from Bangladesh and Myanmar and were trying to get to Thailand, said Kripa Nautiyal, deputy inspector general of the coast guard for the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

'The boat was sailing for over two weeks and it was running short of food and drinking water for a couple of days,' Mr Nautiyal said.

'It's possible that most of these people are still alive,' said Satya Prakash Mishra, commander of the Andamans region coast guard.

The Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar islands comprises a chain of 536 islands in the Indian Ocean, of which only 58 are inhabited. -- AFP