Cargo ship sinks off Oman’s coast; fishermen save 20 sailors

Flag of Oman (Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Authorities in Oman say a cargo ship loaded with construction material has sunk off the sultanate’s southern coast, though all 20 sailors aboard the vessel were saved.

The Royal Oman Police on Sunday posted pictures online of sailors on a boat after being rescued by local fishermen, their sinking ship slipping beneath the waves of the Arabian Sea.

Police and Oman’s Transportation and Communications Ministry said that the boat sank off the coast of Lakabi, a town some 620 kilometres (385 miles) southwest of the sultanate’s capital, Muscat.

The ministry in a statement carried by the state-run Oman News Agency said seawater poured into the ship through a leak, sinking it.

The ministry said the Tanzanian-flagged ship was heading from the United Arab Emirates to Eritrea in East Africa.