Muscat: Two Indian sailors lost their lives in fire while on board a vessel in Yemeni waters. There others who suffered burns are in a critical condition at the Sultan Qaboos Hospital in Salalah.
Indian Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj said this on her official Twitter handle.
Indra Mani Pandey, the Indian ambassador to Oman, told the Times of Oman that the incident happened late Friday night and the injured sailors were brought to Oman for treatment.
The minister also said the government is making all efforts to trace a Salesian priest from India missing in Yemen since March 4.
“Yemen is a conflict zone. But we will spare no efforts to rescue Father Tom Uzhunnalil,” the minister tweeted.
The priest was staying at a Missionaries of Charity convent when rebels attacked it on March 4 and killed 16 people, including four nuns.
Swaraj said she has also spoken to Sister Sally, the superior of the convent who escaped the attack. She survived by hiding from the gunmen after a guard sounded a warning cry about the attackers. Two of the slain nuns were from Rwanda and the two were from India and Kenya.
The minister said that Sister Sally, who is from Kerala, was “safe and would be evacuated today itself.”
The ambassador said the nun has told him that “things are not that smooth where she is and there is no information about the priest Tom Uzhunnalil, who hails from Kottayam district and was taken away by these unidentified gunmen.”