An Emirati cargo ship sank in Gulf waters off Iran on Thursday, triggering a search and rescue operation in heavy seas, which recovered all but one of its 30 crew members.
“All but one of the 30 crew members have been rescued,” the crisis management director for Bushehr province on Iran's Gulf coast told state news agency IRNA.
He said the search was continuing for the final missing crew member with two rescue vessels combing the waters.
State media reported that the vessel -- a car transporter -- had capsized in heavy winds off the Iranian port of Asalouyeh.
“Because of the unfavorable weather and high winds,” the ship sank before three rescue vessels could reach its location, the official said.
There was no official word on the ship's origin or destination or the nationalities of its crew.
But MarineTraffic, an online tracking service, identified the ship as the "Al Salmy 6" and said it had been traveling from Dubai to Iraq’s Umm Qasr.
It said in a tweet that the vessel had “encountered treacherous weather,” with warnings at the time of waves as high as 4.4 meters.
Iran's weather service had put out a red alert on Wednesday for high winds and heavy seas in the waters off Asalouyeh.
The Arabian Gulf remains a major waterway for trade, ranging from cargo ships that transship onto the rest of the world and energy shipments from the Gulf Arab states.
Vessels sinking in the waterway remain incredibly rare. However, dust storms and other poor weather have swept across the region as the seasons change from relatively cold winter months to the scorching days of summer.
