Container ship catches fire off Kerala coast, 22 crew stranded
What's the story
A Singapore-flagged container ship, MV Wan Hai 503, caught fire off the Beypore coast in Kozhikode, Kerala, on Monday morning.
The Indian Navy and Coast Guard have launched a joint operation to rescue the 22 crew members onboard.
The vessel was reportedly carrying over 650 containers and was heading to Mumbai from Colombo.
Twitter Post
The vessel departed Colombo on 7th June
Kerala | A cargo ship catches fire off the coast of Beypore in Kozhikode. The vessel is a Singapore-flagged container ship, 270 m long and with a draught of 12.5m, with LPC Colombo. The vessel departed Colombo on 7th June with NPC Mumbai, 10 June. More details awaited: Indian… pic.twitter.com/dwz4iv0tgk
— ANI (@ANI) June 9, 2025
Incident details
Underdeck explosion reported at around 10:30am
The Defense Ministry said an underdeck explosion was reported at around 10:30am by the Maritime Operations Centre (MOC) in Mumbai to its counterpart in Kochi.
The reason behind the fire is yet to be ascertained. Reportedly, about 20 containers also fell into the sea from the ship.
Emergency messages were sent to fishing boat operators off the Malabar coast.
Rescue operation
Navy, Coast Guard working on rescue operation
The Navy received a distress signal around 10:30am on Monday, and the Western Naval Command diverted INS Surat to assist the vessel at 11:00am.
A sortie by a Dornier aircraft from INS Garuda in Kochi is also being planned to assess the situation and coordinate support.
Meanwhile, the Indian Coast Guard has deployed four ships for firefighting operations.