(Seychelles News Agency) - Three people who were onboard a yacht in the Indian Ocean and sent out a distress signal have been rescued early this morning, in an operation coordinated by the Seychelles Coast Guard’s search and rescue coordination centre.

The Public Relations Officer of the Seychelles People’s Defence Forces, Major Jean Attala has confirmed that the man and two women were rescued by a tanker at around 03.00am local time, in the international waters, some 300 nautical miles from the Seychelles main island of Mahé.

“They are all safe and sound and the tanker is now taking them to the Indian Ocean island of the Comoros, said Attala in a phone interview with SNA.

According to Attala, the yacht ‘Simanderal’, has been abandoned due to adverse weather conditions at this time where the sea is rough.

“The three people have not provided much details but it seems that they were sailing to Mayotte when the encountered the problem with the yacht’s rudder.”

The Seychelles Coast Guard was contacted by the Falmouth Coast Guard in the UK, as a nearby Search and Rescue Coordination centre after they had picked up an emergency alert sent from the yacht.

According to a UK News website, the Falmouth Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre received an emergency positioning beacon alert from the yacht at 8.30am yesterday, adding that the three people on board, included a British national.

“The Seychelles Coast Guard did not deploy any means to physically assist the operation as the incident happened quite far, it simply coordinated the operation and contacted vessels in the vicinity to divert them to the distressed yacht,” said Attala.

Separately, Major Attala has said that the Seychelles Coast Guard is continuing its search for a local missing fishing boat ‘Rouze’, with two Seychellois fishermen onboard, Francois Meriton and Don Hoareau.

The two men are from the Seychelles second most populated island of Praslin and they have been reported missing since June 13.

“We are daily doing aerial search covering certain areas as there was no details of the exact location of the boat…….but we have not abandoned the search,” Attala told SNA.