Princess Miral sinks off Mangaluru

Mangaluru: The cargo ship 'Princess Miral' flying the Syrian flag started listing on Tuesday 5.2 nautical miles from the coast of Mangaluru completely submerged on Friday. The ship was carrying steel rolls from China to Lebanon. Earlier on Tuesday the sailors on board were saved by the Indian Coast Guard ships.

Following the sinking of the ship a fear of oil, and slick has been sounded but the local MRPL and New Mangalore Port have rushed to the aid of the district administration and have mitigated the fear of oil slick by putting a ring of oil booms around the sunk ship. There was 220 MT of oil and oil products were present in the tanks of the ship when it sank.

The salvers hired by the company have sent a team of marine engineers to Mangaluru and they had a round of talk with the District Administration headed by Dr KV Rajendra deputy commissioner and the Indian Coast Guard officials.

The ship was holding over 8000 tonnes of steel rolls produced in China. The ICG officials have summoned the ICGS SamudraPavak who will help them in removing the fuel and furnace oil from the tanks of the ill-fated ship.

The fifteen Syrian sailors who were rescued from the ship are now under the watch of police and soon will be transferred to Bengaluru to the foreigner's detention centre till they are extradited to their own places in Syria. The Ship could have been saved had not the sea been extremely rough. The ship's cranes are still visible above the water from the 50 meters fathom depth where it is sunk. The district administration has sounded an alarm to all other ships passing through the route and also for fishing vessels to be cautious.