Latest news with #crewRescue
Free Malaysia Today
12-06-2025
- General
- Free Malaysia Today
India battles container ship fire with ‘hazardous' cargo
The 268m Singapore-flagged container ship caught fire on Monday. (Indian coast guard/AFP pic) NEW DELHI : India's coast guard said it was battling to extinguish fires raging on a container ship carrying 'hazardous' cargo off the southern coast to prevent a 'potential ecological disaster'. The 268m Singapore-flagged container vessel MV Wan Hai 503, carrying 22 crew members, four of whom are missing, caught fire about 78 nautical miles off India's Beypore port on Monday. Photographs released by the coast guard soon after the blaze broke out showed heavy containers scattered about the vessel, as if hurled up by a powerful explosion. Since then, fire has engulfed the ship. 'The vessel is carrying 2,128 metric tons of fuel and hundreds of containers, including hazardous cargo, posing a serious risk to the marine environment and regional shipping routes,' the coast guard said in a statement late Wednesday. It did not provide more details on the contents of the cargo, but said that 'the situation remains critical'. Eighteen crew members were rescued by the Indian coast guard and navy. Four crew — one from Indonesia, two from Taiwan and one from Myanmar — were listed as missing. The coast guard said it had 'winched five salvage team members' and a diver onto the burning ship. 'With the fire yet to be fully extinguished, efforts to establish a towline and pull the vessel away from the coast are underway to prevent a potential ecological disaster', it said. 'Intensive firefighting efforts have significantly reduced visible flames', it added. 'However, the fire remains active in the inner decks and near fuel tanks.' Seven vessels, including five coast guard vessels as well as airplanes and a helicopter, were engaged in trying to put out the fire. The MV Wan Hai 503 container ship is the second to run into trouble off India's southern coast within weeks. A Liberian-flagged container ship, also with hazardous cargo, sank off the coast of Kerala late last month. The Indian navy rescued all 24 crew members.
Washington Post
26-05-2025
- General
- Washington Post
India's Kerala state on high alert as vessel with hazardous cargo sinks off its coast
NEW DELHI — India's southern state of Kerala on Monday issued a high alert along its coastal areas and asked fishermen not to venture near the site of an accident where a container ship carrying hazardous cargo sank off its coast in the Arabian Sea. The Liberia-flagged MSC ELSA 3 was sailing between the Indian ports of Vizhinjam and Kochi when it sank about 38 nautical miles off Kerala early Sunday. All 24 crew members were rescued, India's defense ministry said.
