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Published: Thursday October 8, 2009 MYT 12:08:00 PM
Updated: Thursday October 8, 2009 MYT 6:05:30 PM

Navy’s largest landing craft on fire(Update)

By IVAN LOH

LUMUT: The Royal Malaysian Navy’s biggest landing craft, the KD Sri Inderapura caught fire while berthed at the naval base here.

The vessel, which was scheduled to transport logistic goods to the Markas Wilayah Laut Dua in Kota Kinabalu on Monday had caught fire at about 6.30am Thursday.

Firemen were trying to put out the fire from the naval dockyard and from sea while assisted by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, local tugboat operators and employees from the Boustead Naval Shipyard.

At 3pm smoke was still seen from the vessel as firemen continued to fight the fire.

A total 77 crew members, including six officers and 22 trainees were on duty on board the ship when the incident happened. No one was injured.

It was the second time that the navy vessel had caught fire since 2002. The vessel was built in 1970 and had been accredited in service in 1995.

KD Sri Inderapura was also among several other navy vessels that had escorted Malaysian trading ships from pirate attacks across the Gulf of Aden in Somalia last year.

Bernama quoted Manjung OCPD ACP Mohd Jamil Osman saying that according to a preliminary report, the fire involved the office and storage areas and no injuries were reported.

Police have yet to receive a report from the RMN in Lumut, he said when contacted.