Picture shows the Iranian Navy’s Kenarak logistical ship in the aftermath of a naval incident near the southern Iranian port cities of Jask and Chabahar on May 12, 2020 that involved the vessel.

As many as 19 people are martyred and 15 others injured in an incident involving the Iranian Navy’s Kenarak logistical vessel in the country’s southern waters.

The incident happened on Sunday as a number of the Navy’s vessels were conducting an exercise near the waters lying close to Jask and Chabahar ports that respectively belong to neighboring provinces of Hormozgan and Sistan and Baluchestan, the Navy’s Public Relations’ Department said in a statement on Monday.

The injured from the incident are in a favorable condition, it added.

Naval relief and rescue teams reached the location shortly after the incident, retrieving the injured and the martyrs from the vessel and transferring them to medical centers, the statement noted.

‘Exemplary courage’

The forces stationed on the vessel displayed exemplary courage in their endeavor to rescue their fellow servicemen, the Navy said.

Earlier, Mohammad Mehran Aminifar, president of Sistan and Baluchestan’s Iranshahr University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, had reported to IRNA that one had been martyred during the tragedy.

Among the injured, two were receiving intensive care, 12 were still hospitalized, and three were treated as outpatients, he had said.

After the incident, the casualties were put in 10 ambulances that had been dispatched to the Haft-e Tir Pier in Chabar, and transferred to the city’s Imam Ali (PBUH) Hospital.

An informed military source, meanwhile, dismissed reports about destruction of the involved ship during the incident, saying the vessel was towed away to the shore afterwards.

The Navy, meanwhile, said that Kenarak has been transferred to a local pier for technical examination.

SOURCE: PRESS TV