Mystery Surrounds Iranian Warship Sinking In Indian Ocean
GALLE, Sri Lanka, March 4 (Reuters) – An Iranian warship sank off the coast of Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan authorities announced on Wednesday that they rescued 32 people on the ship and recovered many bodies from the sea.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told parliament that the ship, identified as IRIS Dena, had sunk.
Sources in the Sri Lankan navy and defense ministry said that the ship was attacked by a submarine and at least 101 people were missing in the incident that occurred off Sri Lanka’s Indian Ocean coast.
Defense sources said it was unclear who attacked the ship.
A Sri Lankan navy spokesman said the report that 101 people were missing was untrue and denied any reports of the cause of the ship’s sinking.
The spokesman said that 32 people injured in the incident were rescued by the Sri Lankan navy and were treated at the public hospital in the southern port city of Galle.
The spokesman said the navy received a distress call from an Iranian ship and informed the Sri Lankan air force, which launched a search and rescue operation.
He said Sri Lankan forces were focusing on saving lives on the Iranian ship and would investigate the cause of the incident later.
He added that Sri Lankan forces did not observe any other ships or aircraft in the incident area.
“We hope we can save more people and we will continue (operations) until we are sure,” he said.
(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe; Writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and YP Rajesh; Editing by Toby Chopra)
