An Iranian frigate sank off Sri Lanka’s coast, leaving nearly 150 sailors missing and several dead after an explosion, amid heightened Middle East tensions.
COLOMBO: Nearly 150 people were missing and several were dead after an Iranian warship sank off the coast of Sri Lanka following a reported explosion.
Sri Lanka’s navy rescued 32 sailors from the frigate IRIS Dena, but hopes were fading for the 148 other crew members, according to the island’s foreign minister and defence officials.
The source of the explosion involving the frigate, which was travelling after reportedly attending a military exercise in India’s eastern port of Visakhapatnam, remains unclear.
This sinking comes as war has broken out in the Middle East following strikes by Israel and the United States against Iran.
Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told parliament that the 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, with a rescue vessel reaching the area about 40 kilometres south of the southern port of Galle within an hour.
Only an oil patch remained when the navy rescue boats approached, as the frigate had completely sunk.
“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 more survivors.
The director at the Karapitiya hospital in Galle, S. D. Ranga, said he was told there may be fatalities, but only 32 injured sailors had been brought in.
Navy spokesman Buddhika Sampath confirmed that “we have found a few bodies from the area where the ship had gone down”.
An opposition legislator asked in parliament whether the vessel had been bombed as part of the ongoing US-Israeli attacks against Iran, but there was no immediate response from the government.
Spokesman Sampath said their operation was conducted under Sri Lanka’s international maritime obligations within its search and rescue area in the Indian Ocean.
Sri Lanka has remained neutral in the Middle East conflict, repeatedly urging dialogue to resolve it.
Both Sri Lanka’s navy and the air force said they were not releasing footage of the rescue because it involved the military of another state.
Police stepped up security outside the Galle hospital as the wounded Iranians were brought there by the local navy.
