- Vessel in the Persian Gulf caught fire near the Emirati sheikhdom on 29th January.
- Blaze prompted warning from British naval officials to ‘exercise extreme caution.’
- Crew on Panama-flagged tanker sent out distress signal and have been rescued.
Huge fire rips through vessel in the Persian Gulf as British naval officials warn ships in the area to ‘exercise extreme caution,’ reports Daily Mail.
Tanker on flames
The United Kingdom’s Maritime Trade Operations said the fire struck the vessel northwest of Sharjah, an Emirati sheikhdom. It offered no other information.
Emirati officials said they were working to put out the blaze some 21 miles (34 kilometers) off the coast of Sharjah.
They identified the ship as the crude oil tanker Zoya 1 and said 16 Indian and Pakistani crew reportedly had been stuck on the vessel for a year, unpaid, trying to come ashore amid a legal dispute over the vessel.
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates were trying to extinguish the blaze on the Panama-flagged oil tanker off the coast of the emirate of Sharjah, the Federal Transport Authority.
Vessel under maintenance
The tanker, which the FTA said was not carrying an oil cargo at the time, was undergoing maintenance when the fire broke out. The crew sent out a distress signal and have been rescued.
The state-run WAM news agency later described the tanker as unloaded and said its crew had been rescued. Officials with the U.S. military said they knew of the fire, but had no further information.
It is unclear how many crew members were on board at the time but the vessel was manned and had been ‘in the region for about a month‘, a representative from the UK Maritime Trade Operations added.
Accident amidst tensions
The blaze comes amid heightened tensions in the region after the U.S. killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad and Iran fired ballistic missiles at Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops.
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Source: Daily Mail
