An Iranian warship, the Iris Dena with a crew of 180, issued a distress call early in the morning from an area just outside Sri Lanka's territorial waters. The Sri Lankan navy and air force launched a rescue operation and saved about 30 people, according to the country's foreign minister Vijatha Herath. Injured crew members were reportedly taken to a hospital in the city of Galle in Sri Lanka.
The cause of the incident is unclear, and an opposition politician reportedly asked the government in parliament if the ship had been bombed as part of the war raging in Iran, but the government gave no direct answer to that question.