The search for an abandoned ship carrying almost 70,000 Australian sheep has been called off after the discovery of debris, an Australian livestock official said on Tuesday.
"This (the debris) indicates the vessel has sunk," Lloyd Beeby, a spokesman for the Australian Meat and Livestock Corp., told Reuters.The debris was discovered just before the four-day search for the 14,990 tonne Uniceb was abandoned in the Indian Ocean north of the Seychelles.
The search, by a salvage tug, an empty livestock carrier and at one stage a U.S. Air Force aircraft, covered a 200-square-nautical-mile area.
The Panamanian-flagged, Swiss-owned Uniceb was traveling from Fremantle, Western Australia, to the Jordanian port of Aqaba when fire broke out in the engine room a week ago. The ship was about 250 miles east of the Seychelles off the east African coast.
The crew abandoned the Uniceb, leaving 67,000 live sheep on the blazing vessel.