Sources in Colombo have told RT that some 30 sailors have been rescued following a distress call
A reported submarine attack has sunk an Iranian naval frigate off the coast of Sri Lanka, according to Reuters, citing sources in Colombo’s navy and defense ministry.
Earlier reports indicate that the IRIS Dena, a Moudge-class frigate of Iran’s Southern Fleet, issued a distress signal on Wednesday morning from the Indian Ocean, about 40 nautical miles off the city of Galle in southwestern Sri Lanka.
“We first received a distress call at around 5:08 AM,” Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath said on Wednesday. “We immediately dispatched two navy ships to assist the Iranian Navy Vessel. Thereafter, a joint operation was conducted by the navy and air force to rescue those in need of help. Thirty persons in need of urgent help were immediately rescued. They have been admitted to the Karapitiya Hospital in Galle.”
Some 180 people were believed to be on board the warship.
“We are bound by the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, 1979, to help any ship in distress, irrespective of its nationality,” Herath added.
Sources close to the rescue operation told RT that the ship had likely been torpedoed.
A Sri Lankan navy spokesman has also told Reuters that reports of 100 sailors missing following the sinking are not true and that 32 people injured in the incident had been rescued by Sri Lankan navy and were under treatment in hospital.
Rescuers have found several bodies that are suspected to be personnel of the warship, Sri Lanka Navy spokesman Buddhika Sampath told reporters in Colombo on Wednesday.
“We suspect the dead bodies also belong to the same ship as we found them in the demarcated area,” he said.
Search and rescue operations are still going on, according to Sampath.
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