The Indian Navy on Sunday said that the on-scene Commander INS Sahyadri is closely monitoring the fire-fighters efforts on a Sri Lankan crude oil tanker that caught fire on Thursday. A team of experts from a Singapore-based company is also joining the efforts to salvage the fire at the ship in Sri Lanka’s eastern waters.

The fire at Panama-registered tanker MT New Diamond was brought under control with India’s help on Saturday but is still not extinguished. The Sri Lankan on Friday confirmed that a Filipino sailor died in the boiler explosion in the engine room of the ship.

The ship was carrying 270,000 metric tonnes of crude oil from Kuwait to India. Indian ships are supporting the Sri Lanka Navy to douse the flames on the tanker off the coast of Sangamankanda in the eastern district of Ampara.

Some 5 ships of Indian coast guard and one Indian Navy ship are still engaged in fire fighting, the Navy said.

The Sri Lanka Navy and others who had joined the rescue operations are continuing to use extinguishing agents and water to douse the fire. The operation is carried out in safe waters 40 nautical miles away from the shores, the Navy said.

It said an additional 10 professionals from the UK and the Netherlands with expertise in rescue operations, disaster evaluation, and legal consultation will be arriving in the country on Sunday.

The joint disaster relief operation, which is being carried out on the instruction of experts, has successfully contained the spread of the ship’s fire and there is no report of the ship leaking oil into the sea, the Navy said.

The Navy said on Saturday that they were assisted by the Air Force and the Ports Authority as well as the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard who were working jointly.

The tanker had 23 crew members – 18 Filipinos and five Greeks. Twenty-two of the 23 member crew had been safely rescued off the tanker.