PTI
 
Mumbai, Jul 9: Five people on board a supply vessel of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation were missing after the ship sunk off the Mumbai coast on Monday July 9.

Of the 14 people on board, nine were rescued immediately, ONGC Chairman and Managing Director R S Sharma told PTI.

Offshore supply vessel Samudrika-10, one of the 14 such vessels owned by ONGC, went down in the Arabian Sea at 1230 hours.

The vessel was operated by private agency Seacal and all 14 people on board were its employees. Rescue operations by Coast Guard and an ONGC team were on.

"Helicopters have been pressed into service to locate the missing," Sharma said adding, operations of the Mumbai High fields -- the country's largest oil and gas field -- will not be affected.

The accident is reminiscent of an incident in July 2005 when a similar supply vessel sank after colliding with an oil station of the public sector company in the Mumbai High fields.

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