NEW DELHI: The Indian Coast Guard on Saturday gave an update on the merchant ship that was struck by a drone, saying that all crew and passengers on board are safe, sources told PTI.
The Coast Guard deployed assistance to the merchant vessel, Chem Pluto, after a drone attack caused a fire on board the ship and disrupted its power supply.
The ship was on its way to New Mangalore from Saudi Arabia with a 22-member crew, 21 of whom are Indians.
Sources said that the Coast Guard Ship Vikram, which was on Exclusive Economic Zone patrol, was diverted to the site after the incident.
The fire has been extinguished and the ship’s engineers are working to restore its electricity supply which got disrupted in the incident, they said.
“The MRCC (Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre) Mumbai received an email from the ship’s agent, Fleet Management, about a fire on board suspected due to a drone attack 217 nautical miles off Porbandar at around 10 am,” said an official from the maritime security agency.
“The crew could extinguish the fire and the engineers are working to restore electricity. The MRCC also diverted (merchant navy ship) MV Marlin which found that the crew was safe,” the official said.
“We will be investigating if it was a drone attack,” the official added.
There was no immediate claim of responsiblity for the strike which came amid a flurry of drone and missile attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels on a vital shipping lane in the Red Sea.
Iran has also been accused of carrying out attacks near its waters.
The attacks on shipping since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7 have prompted major firms to reroute their cargo vessels around the southern tip of Africa, despite the higher fuel costs of much longer voyages.
The Houthi rebels have launched more than 100 drone and missile attacks, targeting 10 merchant vessels involving more than 35 different countries, according to the Pentagon.
(With inputs from agencies)