At least two Indian sailors were killed and several others were reported missing after a Panamanian-flagged tanker caught fire off the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) coast, according to the government on Thursday.
The fire broke out onboard the tanker 21 miles off the UAE coast on Wednesday night, was quickly brought under control by firefighters, the authority said.
The UAE Federal Authority for Land and Maritime Transport said that the efforts were to trace the missing persons, whose nationalities were not known, the Khaleej Times reported.
“Rescue and emergency response teams provided relief to the crew after they received a distress call and rescued the tanker’s crew,” the Authority said in a statement on Thursday.
The tanker had around 55 people on board, including 12 crew members at the time of the accident, according to sources.
The Federal Transport Authority confirmed the tanker is “not loaded with any oil shipments and early reports attribute the incident to an accident during maintenance operations.”
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said earlier on Wednesday that it had received reports of a vessel on fire northwest of the UAE emirate of Sharjah, prompting a warning from British naval officials to “exercise extreme caution.”
Two Indians perished in the fire while two others were reported to be critical.
Sources further said that at least 10 said to be missing.
In 2018, an Indian shipping company had said that one of its crude oil tankers suffered an explosion off the coast of Oman, that left “two casualties” dead and injured one sailor.