Did US carry out strike on Iranian warship off Sri Lanka coast?

Sri Lankan forces were focused on saving lives on the Iranian ship and will investigate the cause of the incident later, he said.

Sri Lankan forces had also not observed any other ship or aircraft in the area of the incident, he added.

"We are hopeful we can rescue more people and will continue (operations) until we are sure," Sampath said.

(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe; writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and YP Rajesh; Editing by Toby Chopra and Jon Boyle)