Bangalore: Sekar, an Indian fisherman was killed and three others were seriously injured in a firing by an American navy ship in Dubai. The navy ship fired on the small motorized boat in which the Indian fishermen were travelling, said a United Arab Emirates official.

"The services concerned are now investigating this incident," says Foreign Ministry official Tareq Amed al-Hidan, reports UAE’s official news agency WAM.

The U.S. fifth fleet based in Bahrain, which is responsible for naval forces in the region said in a statement that the American ship fired the boat as a means of last resort, since the boat did not stop even after several warnings.

According to the statement, "an embarked security team aboard a US navy vessel fired upon a small motor vessel after it disregarded warnings and rapidly approached the US ship near Jebel Ali’’.

"The USNS Rappahannock used a series of non-lethal, preplanned responses to warn the vessel before resorting to lethal force," the statement observed.

"The US crew repeatedly attempted to warn the vessel's operators to turn away from their deliberate approach," it added. "When those efforts failed to deter the approaching vessel, the security team on the Rappahannock fired rounds from a .50-calibre machine gun."

Before going into depth about the incident, the initial duty is to look at its “humanitarian side”, said diplomatic sources.

Sekar, hails from Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu and the injured fishermen, Muniraj, Panpuvan and Murugan are also from the same district.