A merchant vessel Princess Miral, which ran aground off Ullal near Mangaluru, sank completely on June 23, Thursday, officials said. Earlier on Thursday, officials had said that the vessel had submerged by 70% and faced the threat of sinking completely as the sea was rough with high waves. Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner KV Rajendra said that the ship sank completely on June 23 near Ullal in the Arabian Sea, ANI reported. All 15 crew members had already been rescued by Indian Coast Guard personnel. Rajendra had earlier reportedly appointed a Karnataka Coast Guard official to take measures for preventing an oil spill from the sunken vessel.
The ship agency owning the vessel had been exploring ways to prevent the ship from sinking. Experts were to arrive from the Smith Salvage company of Mumbai to rescue the ship. Sources had earlier told PTI that the owner of the ship may try to salvage the cargo of steel coils, which is worth crores of rupees. The ship was carrying the steel coils from Malaysia to Lebanon. Due to a technical fault, a hole developed in the front part of the ship. Though the agents of the vessel tried to bring it to New Mangalore Port (NMP) or the Old Port in Mangaluru for repair, permission was not granted.
Meanwhile, the ship touched the bottom and got stuck at Ucchila in Ullal. The Indian Coast Guard personnel rescued 15 Syrian crew on board the ship. The Coast Guard handed over the 15 crew members of the ship to Panambur police on Wednesday. City police commissioner N Shashi Kumar said the Dakshina Kannada district administration will take care of the Syrian nationals who were on board the ship for now. They will be later sent to the detention centre for foreigners in Bengaluru. After getting consent from the External Affairs ministry, they will be repatriated to Syria, he said.
In a swift & prompt operation, @IndiaCoastGuard Ship Vikram & Amartya have saved 15 precious lives of Syrian nationality from aground MV Princess Miral off #NewMangalore on 21 Jun.#ICG capabilities as the nodal agency for M-#SAR in the Indian Ocean Region.@MEAIndia @eoidamascus pic.twitter.com/rV3ecPXRyR
— Indian Coast Guard (@IndiaCoastGuard) June 23, 2022