COLOMBO: Nearly 150 people were missing and several dead after an Iranian warship sank on Wednesday (Mar 4) off Sri Lanka following what crew members reported as an explosion, officials said.
Sri Lanka’s navy rescued 32 sailors from the frigate IRIS Dena but hopes were fading for 148 other sailors, the island’s Foreign Minister and defence officials said.
The source was unclear of the reported explosion involving the frigate, which was travelling after reportedly attending a military exercise in India’s eastern port of Viskhapatnam.
This sinking comes as war has broken out in the Mideast, after Israel and the United States launched strikes against Iran.
Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told parliament that 32 rescued Iranians were rushed to the main hospital in the island’s south while two navy craft and a plane were deployed to search for survivors.
The frigate issued a distress call at dawn on Wednesday and within less than an hour a rescue vessel reached the area about 40km south of the southern port of Galle, the minister said.
The frigate had completely sunk and only an oil patch remained when the navy rescue boats approached.
“We are keeping up a search, but we don’t know yet what happened to the rest of the crew,” a defence official told AFP, dimming prospects for finding any more survivors.
The director at the Karapitiya hospital in Galle, SD Ranga, said he was told there may be fatalities, but only 32 injured sailors had been brought in.
Read the full article here
