Eleven sailors have been rescued from a Mauritian tanker after it suffered engine trouble and began to drift towards Reunion Island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean, where it ran aground.
It took more than six hours to recover the entire crew of the Tresta Star, which got into trouble at about 21:00 on Thursday.
The rescue operation, undertaken by firefighters, proved to be particularly delicate. This was because the ship is partially stuck on the reefs as well as the difficult weather conditions linked to the effects of cyclone Bastirai.
Reunion official Jacques Billiant hailed “the perilous, very technical and unprecedented operation” carried out by the rescue teams mobilised in Saint-Philippe – in the southeast of the French island.
The 11 survivors are all safe and returned to nearby Mauritius early on Friday morning.
They have since been taken to an accommodation centre and are being looked after by a medical team.
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