A search operation is underway to locate 16 missing crew members, including 13 Indians, after an oil tanker capsized off the coast of Oman.
An Indian official told the BBC that the foreign ministry was coordinating the operation with the Oman maritime authority.
Omani officials said late Monday that the oil tanker Prestige Falcon capsized 25 nautical miles southeast of the Ras Madrakah peninsula.
Three of the 16 missing crew members were Sri Lankan.
The Comoros-flagged ship was en route to the port of Aden in Yemen when it capsized.
Officials from the Oman Maritime Security Center told Reuters on Tuesday that the ship was still “submerged in water, capsized” but would not confirm whether it had stabilized.
Oman’s Ministry of Defence, which runs the centre, did not respond to BBC questions about whether the tanker’s cargo had spilled into the sea.
According to marinetraffic.com, the 117.4m long oil tanker was built in 2007. The area where the ship capsized is located in Oman’s Duqm province, which is home to a large industrial port.
Indians make up the majority of the global maritime workforce and they are often victims of accidents or piracy.
Seventeen Indian crew members of the MSC Aries, a merchant ship with links to Israel, were trapped when Iranian forces seized the ship in April. They were released after negotiations between India and Iran.
In 2022, 16 Indian crew members on a ship were detained by the Equatorial Guinea navy for nine months.
