COLOMBO : According to Herath, the Iranian naval vessel, which carried a crew of around 180 sailors, sent out a distress signal at dawn on March 4. In response, Sri Lanka launched a rescue operation deploying two navy vessels and an aircraft to assist the stricken ship in the Indian Ocean.
Thirty sailors were successfully rescued and those injured were taken to a hospital in southern Sri Lanka for treatment. Authorities in Galle, about 115 kilometres south of the capital Colombo, placed the main hospital on alert to receive the evacuated crew members.
Officials said the exact cause of the frigate’s distress and subsequent sinking was not immediately known. During the parliamentary session, an opposition legislator questioned whether the vessel may have been bombed amid the ongoing U.S.-Israeli military actions against Iran, but the government did not provide an immediate response.
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Sri Lankan Navy spokesman Buddhika Sampath said the rescue mission was conducted in accordance with the country’s international maritime responsibilities.
“We responded to the distress call under our international obligations, as this falls within Sri Lanka’s Search and Rescue Area in the Indian Ocean,” Sampath told AFP.
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