One Navy officer was killed and four others were injured Friday in an accident involving a destroyer that returned home after a mission in waters off Somalia.

The accident occurred at 10:15 a.m. at a naval base in the southern port city of Jinhae when a rope used to connect the 4,400-ton Choi Young destroyer to the dock snapped with a bang for an unknown reason, according to officials.

A welcoming ceremony was being held at the time at the port to mark the safe return of the vessel that had been operating in the waters of the Gulf of Aden off Somalia for escorting ships and doing an anti-piracy mission for six months.

"The sailors appear to have been injured as the rope hit them when it suddenly snapped," a Nay officer said.

The five officers were taken to nearby hospitals after the accident. But one of them, whose identity is withheld, died while under treatment, they said.

They belonged to the troops of the Cheonghae Unit that was stationed in waters off Somalia as the country's first overseas naval unit to help the safe passage of ships through the pirate-ridden gulf. (Yonhap)