Indian Navy boat sinks off Chennai coast
No casualties have been reported yet. The Navy has ordered an inquiry into the incident.
An Indian Navy boat used for harbor security has sunk off the Chennai coast late Wednesday night after it caught fire, reported PTI. No casualties have been reported. The Navy has ordered an inquiry into the incident.
An official statement said the fire broke out on board the interceptor craft while it was on routine deployment around 2 am on Thursday. The boat, made of fibre-glass reinforced plastic, melted in the fire, reported NDTV. All six sailors on board the boat were rescued by two other boats that were sailing with it.
The Sri Lanka-built boat was inducted in the Navy in 2013 as part of the Sagar Prahari Bal, a naval police force created after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. These boats, like the one pictured above, are 16-feet long, four-feet wide and weigh 15 tonnes.