(TEHRAN) Iranian authorities said they rescued 16 crew members from a United Arab Emirates cargo ship that sank in Gulf waters off Iran on Thursday.
Posted at 10:06 a.m.
“Thanks to the efforts of the rescuers, 16 crew members of the ship have been rescued so far,” the head of crisis management in the province of Bushehr told the Tasnim news agency.
The search is continuing to find the remaining 14, he added.
Earlier in the morning, the Iranian authorities had reported the sinking of the Emirati cargo ship carrying cars about fifty kilometers from the port of Assalouyeh.
“An Emirati freighter carrying cars sank some 50 km from Assalouyeh” in the province of Bouchehr, a local maritime and port security official told the official Irna agency, announcing “a search operation launched to save 30 crew members”.
The name of the ship was not specified nor its destination.
On Wednesday, the local Meteorological Organization had issued a “red alert” for strong winds and turbulence at sea in this area.
“Due to adverse weather conditions and strong winds,” the ship sank before three lifeboats arrived, the official said.
According to him, the crew members were in the water with life jackets.
A port on the southern coast of Iran located in the province of Bouchehr, Assalouyeh is an important petrochemical center on the Gulf.
Iran and the Emirates expressed in December the hope of opening a new page in their relations. Their diplomatic ties had been reduced in 2016.
But the two countries bordering the Gulf remain important economic partners.