The Navy had earlier confirmed that 32 people were rescued after a distress call was received from the Iranian navy ship IRIS Dena early this morning (04).
Speaking at a special press briefing, Navy Media Spokesperson Commander Buddhika Sampath stated that the primary focus of the operation was to save lives.
“First and foremost, our priority is to rescue those who were on board the vessel in distress. Only after completing the rescue operations will we be able to conduct an investigation and issue a technical report on how this incident occurred,” he said.
He noted that the exact number of individuals who had been on board the vessel has not yet been officially confirmed. However, according to the ship’s documentation, around 180 people are believed to have been on board at the time of the incident. The number of missing persons remains unknown.
“Though it was beyond our territorial waters, it was within our search and rescue region. So we were obliged to respond as per international obligations,” the spokesperson said.
He explained that when naval teams arrived at the location, they did not see the vessel itself but observed large oil patches on the water and floating life rafts.
