UN suspends Strait of Hormuz evacuation after ship 'hit by projectile'

The UN has halted the evacuation of thousands of seafarers in the Strait of Hormuz after a vessel came under a suspected attack.

The cargo ship, was reportedly hit by a projectile off the coast of Oman, the British military said.

It was travelling through the Strait of Hormuz via a route approved by the UN when it was struck, with the attack coming as several tankers made their way out of the channel using the same path.

But the ship wasn't part of the UN's evacuation programme, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) - the agency leading the operation.

It is still unclear who was responsible for the reported strike. But two US officials quoted by the Reuters news agency said Iran had fired on the ​ship.

Iran has not yet commented on the reports and Sky News was unable to independently verify them.

The attack came hours after Tehran warned vessels against taking routes that it had not approved.

The evacuation by the IMO started on Tuesday and aims to help hundreds of ships and thousands of seafarers out of the strait after being stranded there for months.

The agency decided "to temporarily pause its implementation in order to reconfirm that the ⁠necessary safety guarantees continue to be in place for the ships on our evacuation list and all those in the region," IMO secretary general Arsenio Dominguez said in a statement.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said the vessel sustained damage, but it reported no injuries or environmental impact in the attack.

The Strait of Hormuz, a critical international shipping lane, has been one of the main points of contention between the US and Iran during their war, which is nearing the four-month mark.

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Iran's effective closure of the vital waterway, through which around a fifth of oil and liquefied natural gas travelled before the war, has choked global oil supplies and spiked inflation.

While traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has increased since the US and Iran signed an interim deal to end the war, it has not returned to anywhere near pre-war levels.

(c) Sky News 2026: UN suspends Strait of Hormuz evacuation after ship 'hit by projectile'