DUBAI/TEHRAN: An Emirati cargo ship sank in waters off Iran, triggering a search and rescue operation in heavy seas on Thursday which recovered all but one of its 30 crew, Iranian media reported.
“All but one of the 30 crew members have been rescued,” the crisis management director for Bushehr province told the news agency IRNA.
He said the search was continuing for the final missing crew member with two rescue vessels combing the waters.
Media reported that the vessel — a car transporter — had capsized in heavy winds off the Iranian port of Asalouyeh.
“An Emirati car transporter ship sank nearly 50 kilometres from the port of Asalouyeh,” a local maritime protection official told IRNA.
“Because of the unfavourable weather and high winds” the ship sank before three rescue vessels could reach its location, the official said, adding that winds were gusting at more than 70 kilometres per hour.
There was no official word on the ship’s origin or destination or the nationalities of its crew.
But MarineTraffic, an online tracking service, identified the ship as the “Al Salmy 6” and said it had been travelling from Dubai to Umm Qasr.
It said in a tweet that the vessel, longer than a football field, had “encountered treacherous weather”, with warnings at the time of waves as high as 4.4 metres.
Iran’s weather service had put out a red alert on Wednesday for high winds and heavy seas in the waters off Asalouyeh. — AFP