A Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) containership is said to have suffered an engine room fire off the coast of Sri Lanka.
The 4,743-teu MSC Messina (built 1995) reported the fire early on Friday about 425 nautical miles (787 km) from Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that one member of the ship’s crew was missing, but TradeWinds has been unable to verify this.
The Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) at Port Blair is said to have been coordinating assistance to the vessel via the 14,000-teu MSC Deila (built 2009), which was reported to have been in the vicinity.
By Saturday, the fire on board the vessel had been brought under control, and the ship was being towed to Singapore by the offshore tug Vigour (built 2010).
The Sri Lanka Port Authority (SLPA) said the vessel’s crew used carbon dioxide to douse the fire and bring it under control.
The Liberian-flagged vessel, which has a crew of 28 people, was en route from Colombo to Singapore when the incident occurred.
The MSC Messina reportedly discharged most of its containers at Colombo and only had 38 boxes aboard for discharge in Singapore.
The Indian Coast Guard said the vessel was now in a “stable condition” and that MRCC at Port Blair continued to “monitor the situation”.
The agency added that one of its offshore patrol vessels would remain in the vicinity to provide “security and necessary assistance”.
MSC has been contacted for details of the incident.
