Container vessel carrying ‘hazardous cargo’ sinks off Kerala coast, alert issued in state

A Liberian-flagged container vessel, MSC ELSA 3, carrying “hazardous cargo” sank off the coast of Kerala’s Kochi on Sunday after it began gradually tilting a day earlier, the Indian Coast Guard said.

All 24 crew members on board the vessel were rescued, it added.

“The vessel, en route from Vizhinjam to Kochi, was carrying 640 containers (including 13 hazardous scargo and 12 calcium carbide containers), along with 84.44 MT diesel and 367.1 MT furnace oil,” the Ministry of Defence said. The Coast Guard was assessing the situation, it added.

“Presently, no oil spill has been reported,” the ministry said, adding that the reason for the incident was yet to be ascertained.

However, the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority on Saturday issued an alert to the public to keep away from objects that may drift towards the coast, The Indian Express reported.

On Saturday, the Indian Coast Guard said that it had received a distress alert about the vessel. In a post on X, it said that the vessel had departed from Vizhinjam port on Friday and was scheduled to reach Kochi the next day.

The vessel capsized rapidly in the early hours of Sunday “reportedly due to flooding in one of the holds”, the Coast Guard said.

“ICG [Indian Coast Guard] has activated comprehensive pollution response preparedness and working in close coordination with state administration to address all possible scenarios,” it added.

A defence spokesperson in Kochi said that 21 of the 24 crew members on board the vessel were rescued on Saturday and the remaining three were rescued on Sunday, The Indian Express reported.

Shekhar Kuriakose, member secretary of the State Disaster Management Authority, told The Indian Express that the public had been told not to go near objects that were suspected to be from the sunken ship and were washed ashore.

“They should keep at least 200 metres away from such objects containing dangerous material,” the newspaper quoted Kuriakose as saying. “The Navy has informed that one km per hour is the approximate speed at which the containers will drift. The coastal regions of Ernakulam and Alappuzha have the highest possibility of getting the containers washed ashore.”

After the vessel tilted on Saturday, the parent firm of the sinking ship, which had also informed the Indian Coast Guard about the situation, brought another vessel to the area to assist in the rescue, according to The Indian Express.

Three crew members remained onboard the tilting ship as per instructions from the company.

However, on Sunday, the ship started submerging rapidly and more containers fell into the sea, the newspaper reported. The three crew members were subsequently rescued and taken onboard by INS Sujata.

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