The Sri Lanka Navy evacuated an injured fisherman from deep-sea waters south of the island on Sunday and rushed him to hospital after a serious arm fracture sustained at sea.
The rescue was coordinated by the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Colombo following a request for assistance from the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Newswire reported.
The fisherman was aboard the multi-day trawler Hasitha Putha 4, which had departed Tangalle Fisheries Harbour with six crew members. He suffered the fracture while the vessel was conducting fishing operations roughly 45 nautical miles south of Sri Lanka.
A Navy vessel attached to the Southern Naval Command was dispatched to the location. Naval personnel administered first aid before transporting the casualty to Hambantota Port. He was subsequently admitted to the Hambantota District General Hospital for further treatment.
The Navy said it remains on standby to respond to maritime emergencies within Sri Lanka’s designated search and rescue region — a zone that extends well beyond the island’s territorial waters and covers a substantial swathe of the central Indian Ocean. The MRCC Colombo regularly coordinates such evacuations alongside arrests and seizures linked to illegal fishing and narcotics interdiction operations across the same waters.
