Images: MSC box ship capsizes off India, 24 crew rescued

An MSC container ship that developed a list and forced crew to evacuate has now sunk, according to the Indian Coast Guard (ICG).

Posting on social media platform X, the Indian Coast Guard said Liberia-flagged MSC Elsa 3 developed a 26° list 61 km off the coast of Kochi in the Mumbai Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre region.

With 21 of the vessel’s 24 crew initially reported as rescued, the ICG later confirmed the remaining three crew members had been saved and the box ship had been lost.

“All 24 crew members ex Liberian-flagged container vessel MSC ELSA 3 were rescued safely, 21 by Indian Coast Guard and three by Indian Navy Ship Sujata after the vessel sank off Kochi this morning,” the ICG posted on 25 May.

To support the crew evacuation, ICG said its aircraft deployed additional liferafts near the listing vessel and it issued urgent directives to the ship’s managers to initiate salvage operations to stabilise the vessel and avert further risks. 

The ICG reported the ship was carrying 640 containers, including 13 containing hazardous cargo and 12 with calcium carbide, a substance that, according to a US health department fact sheet, reacts with water to produce a hazardous gas. The vessel has 84 tonnes of diesel and 367 tonnes of furnace oil in its tanks, according to ICG.

"ICG has activated comprehensive pollution response preparedness and is working in close co-ordination with [Indian] state administration to address all possible scenarios. ICG aircraft equipped with advanced oil spill mapping technology are conducting aerial assessment of the affected area. As of now, no oil spill has been reported," the coast guard said, calling the ecosystem off the coast of the state of Kerala ’fragile’.

All photos contained in this article are sourced from Indian Coast Guard/X.