Twenty-four Indian seafarers were rescued on Monday from the tanker Marivex off the coast of Oman that was struck by the United States military, The Hindu reported on Tuesday. The US had attacked the tanker as it has imposed a blockade restricting maritime traffic linked to Iran.

The US Central Command said that it had disabled the Palau-flagged vessel after it violated the blockade by attempting to sail to an Iranian port. It added that Marivex had been unladen at the time of the strike.

Marivex had been sanctioned by the US government in December over alleged links to Iran’s oil trade amid the conflict in West Asia. The vessel was among the few ships that exited the Strait of Hormuz on April 9 after a ceasefire was declared.

Following the strike, an audio message purportedly sent to General Secretary of the Forward Seamen’s Union of India Manoj Yadav said that the vessel was sinking after the attack on the ship’s engine room, the newspaper reported.

The message added that a fire had broken out, due to which lifeboats on one side of the ship were not accessible. The crew also claimed that there was a US warship nearby that was not helping.

The sailors were evacuated by helicopter and taken to Masirah Island in Oman. They are safe and expected to return to India in two days, The Hindu quoted Yadav as saying.

At a press briefing, Opesh Kumar Sharma, director at the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways also said that the 24 seafarers on board the Marivex are safe, but declined to comment on the cause of the fire.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.