Twenty sailors were saved on Sunday after their cargo ship sank off the coast of Oman.

Authorities in Oman said that the ship was loaded with construction material, consisting of steel bars and sand.

Police and Oman’s Transportation and Communications Ministry said that the boat sank off the coast of Lakabi, a town some 620 kilometers (385 miles) southwest of the sultanate’s capital, Muscat.

The ministry in a statement carried by the state-run Oman News Agency said seawater poured into the ship through a leak, sinking it.

A nearby fisherman saved the sailors.

The ministry said the Tanzanian-flagged ship was heading from the United Arab Emirates to Eritrea in East Africa.

The Royal Oman Police on Sunday posted pictures online of sailors on a boat after being rescued by the local fishermen, their sinking ship slipping beneath the waves of the Arabian Sea.

The concerned naval authorities, police and coast guard are keen on preserving marine security and the Sultanate’s environment and marine wealth, said the Oman News Agency.