Suspected drone attack on merchant ship; crew, vessel safe: Coast Guard

A suspected drone attack led to an explosion and a fire on a merchant ship with 21 Indians onboard off the Gujarat coast on Saturday morning, disrupting its power supply, Coast Guard sources said.

The 22-member crew and the vessel, Chem Pluto, are safe, they said.

The ship was on its way to New Mangalore from Saudi Arabia, the sources said.

The fire has been extinguished and the ship's engineers are working to restore its electricity supply which got disrupted in the incident, they said.

Indian Coast Guard Ship Vikram, which was on Exclusive Economic Zone patrol, was diverted to the site, they said.

The MRCC (Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre) Mumbai received an email from the ship's agent, Fleet Management, about a fire on board suspected due to a drone attack 217 nautical miles off Porbandar at around 10 am, said an official from the maritime security agency.

The vessel has 21 Indians, including the master, and a Nepali citizen, the official added.

The crew could extinguish the fire and the engineers are working to restore electricity. The MRCC also diverted (merchant navy ship) MV Marlin which found that the crew was safe, the official said.

We will be investigating if it was a drone attack, the official added.