A Russian chief engineer was found dead on board a ship off the Odisha coast on Tuesday, the third person from that country to have died in the state in 10 days.

Police and officials at Paradip port said Sergey Milyakov, 51, was suspected to have died of a heart attack.

The cargo ship MV AL Danah is anchored in the sea 8km off the port. The chairman of the Paradip Port Authority, P.L. Haranadh, told reporters: “We are inquiring into the issue. Until and unless the inquiry is over, we cannot say much. It is too early to comment on the issue.”

Harnath added: “We received a message from the master of the ship in the small hours that the Russian chief engineer had died. Our health officials immediately reached the spot. All formalities will be done according to protocol.”

Director-general of police S.K. Bansal said an investigation was on. Asked whether a crime branch probe will be ordered, Bansal said: “It’s too early to comment. Let’s see how the investigation is proceeding.”

Milyakov had boarded the ship at Singapore on September 18 and it sailed to Iskenderun in Turkey. From Turkey, it came to Chittagong in Bangladesh and then to Paradip port on the way to deliver iron ore to Mumbai. “Milyakov is suspected to have died of a heart attack. But we need to wait for the post-mortem report. The ship’s staff will also be interrogated,” a police officer said.

The cargo ship has 23 staff members including Russians, Estonians and Indians. The master of the ship, Captain Dmitry Podkolzin, is a Russian. Sources said Milyakov’s body was still on the ship.

“There are many issues like insurance settlement and embassy permission. All these clearances will take time. Once this is over, the local police will take the body for a post-mortem. All the formalities are likely to be over by tomorrow morning,” said a senior official of the port.

Milyakov’s death comes at a time when the Odisha police are investigating the deaths of Russian tourists Pavel Antov, a critic of President Vladimir Putin and billionaire businessman, and his companion Vladimir Bidenov in Odisha’s Rayagada district.

While Bidenov died of a suspected heart attack on December 22, Antov was found lying in a pool of blood in the backyard of the hotel two days later.