Kolkata, June 19: A salvage team went on board merchant vessel SSL Kolkata on Monday for the first time since the fire fighting operation in the ship to make an assessment of the situation created by the June 14 blaze, a Defence Ministry spokesperson said.

The team was taken on board ICGS RajKiran from Haldia and transferred onto the Platform support vessel Lewek Alatair. On reaching a safe distance from MV SSL Kolkata, the members of the salvage team were lowered onto a yet smaller boat that too then alongside the ship.

The members spent some time on board MV SSL Kolkata and returned to the platform support vessel, the spokesperson said.

The Coast Guard's Dornier helicopter, which was operating overhead all this while, reported very little smoke still emanating from the distressed vessel.

Inspector General Kuldeep Singh Sheoran, the Coast Guard's regional commander here, said an additional salvage team from Holland will land in Kolkata on Wednesday morning and its members would be taken on board a Coast Guard ship to MV SSL Kolkata for further management of salvage operations.

No Coast Guard personnel boarded the ship along with the salvage team.

Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force MI 17 helicopter that had been holding position at Frasergunj returned to Barrackpore without carrying out any further Bambi bucket operation.

On Sunday, the ministry had announced that the fire had been extinguished.

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New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi Police has arrested five of a family for allegedly assaulting a police officer and snatching his service pistol during a raid in the Sultanpuri area, an official said on Wednesday.

The accused are Rajender (50), his sons Ritik (24), Sachin (29), Abhishek (26), and his daughter Komal (22). 

The incident occurred on September 2, when a team from the Anti-Narcotics Task Force arrested Alka, wife of Rajender, for possession of heroin, police said.

During the raid, Alka's family members attacked a police officer with sticks and bricks and snatched his service pistol, mobile phone, and wallet. However, the officer managed to recover his service pistol, they said.

Police said that an FIR was registered and an investigation was launched.

Acting on a tip-off, police arrested the accused, absconding since the incident, from a flat in Raghubir Nagar in Delhi.