The largest ship in the Iranian navy caught fire and later sank on Wednesday in the Gulf of Oman. The circumstances of the fire remain unclear, news agencies reported.
Iran's Fars and Tasnim news agencies said efforts failed to save the support ship Kharg, named after the island that serves as the main oil terminal for Iran.
The blaze began around 2:25 am on Wednesday and firefighters tried to contain it, reports said. The vessel sank near the Iranian port of Jask, some 1,270 kilometers southeast of Tehran on the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz.
Photos circulated on Iranian social media showed sailors wearing life jackets evacuating the vessel as a fire burned behind them.