Hyderabad, July 1: The coffins have landed.

After two days of search in water and on land, Andhra police today sent 33 coffins by a navy helicopter for their missing Greyhound commandos.

The coffins have reached Chitrakonda, the ambush area near an Orissa reservoir in the Malkangiri border district where Maoist rebels sank the police boat carrying the jawans on their way back from a combing operation.

Thirty-three coffins mean 33 men are still missing, more than half the 60-odd who had boarded the launch on Sunday morning. Police sources said nearly 30 people had so far been rescued, but their whereabouts are still a secret.

Although sources had earlier claimed that nine bodies had been found near the Balimela reservoir, they admitted today that only one had been found so far — of Nag, the commander of the Greyhounds.

Greyhound IG Rajiv Trivedi and Visakhapatnam police chief Akun Sabarwal have been supervising the search operation at Chitrakonda with Orissa police officers DIG Sanjeev Panda and SP Satish Kumar Gajibe, besides Malkangiri collector Nitin Jawla. Sabarwal confirmed that only Nag’s body had been found so far.

Police sources suspect the commandos either drowned or were taken captive by the Maoists, who witness said chased the jawans in country boats as they struggled to reach the shore.

Senior officers said search parties were still scouring the remote ravine for the missing men. A constable who had suffered bullet wounds died in a Visakhapatnam hospital, an officer said.

“The search operation is on, both in the water and in the nearby forest,” a top Orissa police officer told Reuters.

But a top officer said chances of survival in the hostile terrain were low.

Police sources said nearly 200 rebels were waiting for the jawans on the hillocks. An eyewitness said they fired grenades but missed the boat, though the impact swung it around. “But the rockets did not miss and the boat was split into two and sank.”

By afternoon today, the police had identified the area where the boat sank in the Sileru, which divides Andhra and Orissa.

The police also said the banned CPI (Maoists) had formed a boat wing that operated in rivers near the Andhra-Orissa border.

A search is on in the river for the weapons of the commandos. “If they fall into the hands of the Maoists, it will be a major threat to peace in the area,” said a police officer.