A US Navy minesweeper has run aground in a marine sanctuary in the Philippines, the American embassy said yesterday.
The USS Guardian ran aground on the Tubattaha Reef on Wednesday night "during normal transit", it said. The extent of the damage to the ship and the cause of the accident were still not known.
"The government of the Philippines was promptly informed of the incident and offered to assist," the embassy said.
The navy said on its website that the 68-metre vessel is based in Sasebo, southern Japan. It was not known what the ship was doing in the protected sanctuary.
Located in the Sulu Sea about 130 kilometres southeast of the western island of Palawan, Tubattaha Reef is a protected sanctuary that is popular with divers. It has walls of corals and a diverse ecosystem that environmentalists say rivals that of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
The US embassy statement did not say whether any coral was damaged, although it said there were no immediate reports of fuel or oil leaks. All its crew members were safe, it added.