Showing its wide reach and capability, the Coast Guard has deployed its ships to douse fire on board a Singaporean merchant vessel which is stranded 630 miles away from the Indian shores.

As soon as we received the request, our Indian Coast Guard Ship Shoor, which is a 105 metre class vessel, was sailed from Mangalore in Karnataka towards the Singaporean flag ship which is 630 nautical miles away from Indian mainland shore and close to 400 nautical miles from the Lakshadweep islands, a Coast Guard official said.

The Singaporean ship is laden with over 7,600 containers on board and was on way towards the Suez Canal for its next destination port after sailing out from Singapore couple of days ago, they said.

Pictures of the Maersk Honam taken by the ICGS Shoor suggest that the fire caused heavy explosions on board the merchant ship as disfigured containers on it can still be seen lying on board.

There is a massive fire in the cargo hold which has containers in it and explosions are taking place very frequently. The Shoor has activated all its firefighting machinery and is stationed there, the officials said.

The ICGS Shoor is commanded by DIG Murugesan and had been diverted from Mangalore in Karnataka on Thursday morning to tackle the emergency.

The ship sailed at high speeds for 24 hours and managed to travel the distance of around 630 nautical miles in less than 24 hours, the officials said.

Coast Guard chief Director General Rajendra Singh said the operation being undertaken 630 nautical miles away from mainland shows the reach and capability of the maritime force to carry out search and rescue, pollution control and any type of emergency response actions in the region. The Indian Coast Guard is the fourth largest in the world and has been expanding in the last few years.