The crew of a Sovcomflot tanker rescued 19 seafarers after their ship started sinking off the coast of Yemen, the Russian company said.
The 111,682-dwt NS Africa (built 2009) responded to a distress signal on Sunday and picked up all the seafarers from a life raft after they abandoned the ship.
The sinking vessel was named by SCF Group as the Lavant with crew members from India, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Ownership and management details of the Lavant were not immediately available.
The SCF Group has been hit by Western sanctions, but the NS Africa is not one of more than 20 tankers specifically designated by Western regimes.
The stricken ship sent a distress signal on Sunday after suffering flooding that could not be contained some 96 nautical miles (178 km) off the southern Yemen coastal town of Nishtun.
The distress call was reported by the UK Maritime Trade Operations.
The cause of the flooding was not disclosed and there were no reports of an attack against the ship by Houthi rebels that have targeted commercial shipping.
The rescued seafarers are due to leave the NS Africa when it arrives at the port of Suez, scheduled for Saturday.
The NS Africa was on a ballast leg back to Russia after delivering 730,000 barrels of Urals crude to an Indian refinery, according to Kpler ship tracking data.
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