VIDEO | Iranian sailors hospitalized in Sri Lanka following US submarine strike, 87 confirmed dead

Iranian sailors who survived a US submarine strike in the Indian Ocean were recovering at a hospital in the Sri Lankan port city of Galle, authorities said on Thursday, a day after at least 87 were killed in the attack.

Authorities at the National Hospital in Galle and navy sources said 87 bodies were brought in by military rescuers who responded to an early-morning distress call from the IRIS Dena on Wednesday.

Search and rescue operations for an estimated 60 people on board who remain unaccounted for would continue on Thursday, authorities said.

The 32 rescued sailors were being treated for minor injuries and could be released from hospital on Thursday, authorities said.

Two policemen guarded the entrance to ward number 58 of the hospital as nurses milled about and doctors conducted morning rounds. The attack, which dramatically widens the scope of the war, happened hundreds of miles across the Indian Ocean from the gulf, where US and Israeli forces are striking Iran and Tehran is retaliating with missile and drone attacks.