COLOMBO: A fire broke out on a large oil tanker off the eastern coast of Sri Lanka on Thursday, leaving one of its 23 crew members missing and another injured, a navy spokesman said.
The fire started in the engine room of the New Diamond, which was carrying crude oil from Kuwait to India, and then spread, spokesman Capt. Indika Silva said.
The navy sent four ships to help the ship. By the time they arrived, 19 of the crew members had left on lifeboats and were picked up by the ships, Silva said.
As the navy ships tried to put out the fire, the captain and two others abandoned the tanker, he said. The remaining crew member was missing.
The injured crew member was identified as the third engineer of the ship and is being taken to land in a navy boat, Silva said.
He said two anti-submarine Russian ships anchored at a Sri Lankan port were also heading to the scene. The Russian ships had arrived at Hambantota port for replenishment and crew rest.
The Indian coast guard said it also had deployed ships and aircraft after the Sri Lankan navy sought its help.
At the time the fire broke out, the Panamanian-registered ship was about 38 nautical miles (70 kilometers) east of Sri Lanka.
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1 missing, 1 injured in fire on oil tanker near Sri Lanka
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1 missing, 1 injured in fire on oil tanker near Sri Lanka
- The fire started in the engine room of the New Diamond, which was carrying crude oil from Kuwait to India
- The Indian coast guard said it also had deployed ships and aircraft after the Sri Lankan navy sought its help
Suspected Russia shadow tanker anchored off French coast
MARTIGUES: An oil tanker seized by France in the Mediterranean and suspected of being part of Russia’s sanction-busting “shadow fleet” lay anchored Sunday near a southern French port and guarded by the French navy.
The Grinch was intercepted Thursday morning in international waters between Spain and North Africa.
The French navy escorted it to the Gulf of Fos in southern France, the regional maritime prefecture said in a statement on Saturday.
The vessel will be kept at the disposal of the Marseille public prosecutor as part of a preliminary investigation for failure to fly a flag, it added. The captain and crew will also be questioned, according to a source close to the case.
The tanker was at anchor about 500 meters off the town of Martigues, an AFP photographer observed on Sunday morning. A French navy ship and two gendarmerie patrol boats were stationed nearby.
The prefecture said nautical and air exclusion zones had been established around the anchorage site.
Some 598 vessels suspected of belonging to the shadow fleet are under European Union sanctions.
Authorities said the 249 meter long Grinch appears under that name on a UK sanctions list of Russian shadow fleet vessels, but as Carl on lists compiled by the EU and the United States.
The operation is the second of its kind in recent months.
France in late September detained a Russian-linked ship called the Boracay, a vessel claiming to be flagged in Benin, a move Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned as “piracy.”
The Boracay’s Chinese captain is to stand trial in France in February.
The Grinch was intercepted Thursday morning in international waters between Spain and North Africa.
The French navy escorted it to the Gulf of Fos in southern France, the regional maritime prefecture said in a statement on Saturday.
The vessel will be kept at the disposal of the Marseille public prosecutor as part of a preliminary investigation for failure to fly a flag, it added. The captain and crew will also be questioned, according to a source close to the case.
The tanker was at anchor about 500 meters off the town of Martigues, an AFP photographer observed on Sunday morning. A French navy ship and two gendarmerie patrol boats were stationed nearby.
The prefecture said nautical and air exclusion zones had been established around the anchorage site.
Some 598 vessels suspected of belonging to the shadow fleet are under European Union sanctions.
Authorities said the 249 meter long Grinch appears under that name on a UK sanctions list of Russian shadow fleet vessels, but as Carl on lists compiled by the EU and the United States.
The operation is the second of its kind in recent months.
France in late September detained a Russian-linked ship called the Boracay, a vessel claiming to be flagged in Benin, a move Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned as “piracy.”
The Boracay’s Chinese captain is to stand trial in France in February.
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