Mangaluru :  All the nine men on board the Coromandel Express Tug, which was stranded nearly five nautical miles away from the Kaup Light House, have been rescued in a joint operation by the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard on Monday.

A speed boat, Varaha vessel and Helicopter were pressed into service for the rescue operation. While two men were rescued by a helicopter, seven others using a speed boat.

All the rescued were brought to the NMPT through a Coast Guard ship Varaha. A medical team is on stand-by there to check their health.

Mullah Khan is the captain of the stranded tug while Gaurav Kumar is the second captain. Others who were in the tug are A V Shantanu, Rahul, Deepak, Prashanth, Tushar, Lakshminarayan and Ahmed.