Toxic materials may have got mixed with oil leaked in sea: DGS

"The vessels had 31 containers on deck fully loaded with toxic and flammable constituents. Among the containers, six were loaded with pesticides. It would be fair to assume that the containers would fall off, if not already in water," Director General of Shipping S B Agnihotri said here.

Cargo ships MSC Chitra and MV Khalija-III had collided off the coast on August 7 resulting in the oil spill.MSC Chitra is perilously tilted to one side and this has resulted in about 120 containers falling off its deck and causing heavy oil spillage from its fuel tanks since yesterday, Agnihotri said.

On cause of the crash, he said as per a preliminary inquiry, the accident may have happened due to a fault in navigating the ships or failure in radio communication. The final investigation report will be out in a few days.

There were a total of 1,219 containers on MSC Chitra and 512 are on the deck which may fall into the water as the ship has tilted dangerously, he said