The missing member of the crew of the Cypriot-flagged ship which was hit by a missile while attempting to traverse the Strait of Hormuz at the weekend has died, his family said on Wednesday.

He was named as 30-year-old Indian national Heramb Karmarkar, a marine engineer on board the Cyprus-flagged container ship M/V GFS Galaxy, and a relative of his, Rishi Tandon, informed Indian news website the Indian Express that “we have been told by the authorities now that Heramb is no more”.

The news of his death comes just a day after the Indian government had summoned Iran’s ambassador in New Delhi to register “a strong protest” after two other vessels, the MT Al Bahiyah and the MT Mobasa, were both hit by Iranian missile fire in the Strait of Hormuz during the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Cypriot Deputy Shipping Minister Marina Hadjimanolis said on Tuesday that the M/V GFS Galaxy had been hit by an “unidentified projectile” at 1.40am Cyprus time on Sunday.

She confirmed that the crew was made up of Indian, Ukrainian, Sri Lankan, Indonesian and Filipino nationals, and that no Cypriot nationals were among the crew at the time of the strike.

Additionally, she said that the remaining 23 crew members had abandoned the ship and taken to a lifeboat, before being picked up by the Omani navy and transported to shore. The ship, meanwhile, was at the time being towed to the port of Khor Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates.

The United States’ defence department’s central command had said on Sunday that the M/V GFS Galaxy had been “blatantly attacked” by the forces of the Islamic revolutionary guards, prompting US forces to begin “launching the third round of strikes this week against Iran”.

It said that Iran “was provided yet another opportunity to demonstrate adherence” to the agreement signed last month which many had hoped would bring to an end the conflict which broke out between the US and Iran in the spring, “but has again failed”, after having “been held accountable for earlier attacks on commercial vessels”.

Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint between the most northerly point of Oman and Iran’s southern coast, which provides the only seaborne access between the Persian Gulf and the open ocean, closed on Sunday amid ongoing US strikes against its facilities.

However, the US and Donald Trump have repeatedly insisted that despite Iranian assertions, the strait remains open.

The BBC quoted Iranian state media as having reported that the Iranian revolutionary guards had fired a naval cruise missile at a vessel which was “attempting to sail along an unapproved route”.

The ship, it said, was “hit by warning shots and stopped”.