Chennai: The Chennai Port Trust (CPT) has detained a Malta-registered ship "M V Garland" docked at the outer anchorage off the port, following an anonymous call that it was carrying radioactive materials.

Coast Guard sources told UNI that a three-member team of Health Physicts from the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Resear (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam, about 70 km from here, rushed to examine whether the ship was carrying radioactive materials.

''The examination is going on. Only after it is completed we can confirm whether it is hoax call or not,'' the sources said.

As the ship, which came from Visakhapatnam yesterday, anchored off the port, the Traffic Manager of Chennai Port received an anonymous call that some radioactive materials were being carried in the ship. On being informed, the Port Trust Chairman alerted the Indian Navy, Coast Guard and other coastal security agencies to conduct searches in the ship.

The security agencies sought the assistance of IGCAR Director Baldev Raj after which a team of health physicists were deputed to conduct search operations in the ship.