3 crew members ‘believed trapped’ aboard Thai ship attacked by IRGC in Strait of Hormuz yesterday

Three crew members believed to be trapped aboard a Thai bulk carrier hit by projectiles while traveling through the crucial Strait of Hormuz are yet to be rescued, the vessel’s owner says.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said yesterday they had struck the Thai-registered Mayuree Naree, as well as a Liberia-flagged vessel, in the strait because the ships had ignored “warnings.”

The Thai ship was struck while transiting through the Gulf waterway, after departing Khalifa port in the United Arab Emirates.

The two projectiles damaged the Mayuree Naree’s engine room and caused a fire, Thai transport company Precious Shipping says in a statement.

“Three crew members are reported missing and believed to be trapped in the engine room,” it says, adding that authorities are working to rescue them.

“Unfortunately, that remains the case,” the firm’s managing director Khalid Hashim says.

“We still have not been able to get anyone to board our ship, even though the fire has been extinguished,” Hashim says in an email.

“We are trying different avenues to get onboard.”

The Omani navy rescued 20 of the vessel’s sailors on Wednesday, the Thai navy said. Thailand’s foreign ministry said all 23 crew members were Thai.

All Thai vessels have left the Strait of Hormuz and Bangkok had “protested against the violence done to the commercial ships,” the ministry’s deputy spokesman Panidol Patchimsawat tells reporters.

“Please be assured that we are on a mission to find the missing three,” he adds.