Video: Iranian navy ship Kharg catches fire and sinks in Gulf of Oman
Iran’s largest naval vessel has sunk due to unknown causes say semi-official Iranian news outlets.
The Iranian navy support ship, Kharg, has caught fire and sunk near the Iranian port of Jask, 790 miles southeast of Tehran. The Fars and Tasnim new agencies said efforts to save the ship were to no avail.
The cause of the sinking is unknown and there are no reports of casualties so far. The blaze began around 2.25am on Wednesday and photos have circulated on social media of Iranian sailors abandoning ship.
State TV and semi-official news agencies referred to the Kharg as a “training ship, but it is well known that the Kharg serves as a support ship to Iranian naval vessels and is one of the few vessels in the Iranian navy capable of replenishing other ships at sea.
The sinking comes after a series of mysterious explosions aboard Iranian merchant and naval vessels in the Gulf of Oman.
Kharg was built by Swan Hunter in the UK in the late 1970s, based on the O-Class tankers built for the Royal Fleet Auxillary. She was ordered before the Islamic revolution in 1977 and delivered in 1984.
