Beijing: A Iranian oil tanker burst into flames from end to end and sank Sunday, eight days after a collision with a cargo ship off China, state media said.
A Tehran official said even before news of the sinking that there was no hope of saving some 30 missing crewmen. But Chinese officials played down fears of a major environmental disaster.
The Sanchi, carrying 136,000 tons of light crude oil from Iran, had been in flames since colliding with the CF Crystal, a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter, on January 6.
Around midday Sunday the ship тАЬsuddenly ignited,тАЭ with the entire vessel burning fiercely and a pall of smoke around 800-1,000 meters high, ChinaтАЩs transport ministry said, releasing dramatic pictures showing the entire vessel obscured by thick black smoke.┬аThe ship later sank, the official news agency Xinhua cited the State Oceanic Administration as saying.
тАЬThere is no hope of finding survivors among the members of the crew,тАЭ Mohammad Rastad, spokesman for the Iranian rescue team dispatched to Shanghai, told IranтАЩs state broadcaster in Tehran before the tanker went down.
Rastad said information from members of the Crystal crew suggested all the personnel on the Sanchi were killed in the first hour of the accident тАЬdue to the explosion and the release of gas.тАЭ
тАЬDespite our efforts, it has not been possible to extinguish the fire and recover the bodies due to repeated explosions and gas leaks,тАЭ he said.
The Sanchi, which was headed to South Korea to deliver its cargo, had a crew of 32 тАФ 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis. Only three bodies have so far been recovered.
Chinese rescuers Saturday also recovered the tankerтАЩs тАЬblack box,тАЭ the transport ministry said without specifying exactly what had been retrieved.
A reporter with ChinaтАЩs state television CCTV aboard a plane from the State Oceanic Administration reported seeing wreckage from the Sanchi and oil on fire, and spilt fuel covering a 10 square kilometer area. тАЬThe oil spill situation is very serious,тАЭ CCTV quoted the reporter as saying on social media.
But the television earlier also cited Zhang Yong, a senior engineer with the State Oceanic Administration, as playing down fears of a spill.
тАЬBecause this is light crude oil spill, relatively speaking it has a much smaller impact than other oil spills, because this kind of oil is especially volatile тАФ most of it has entered the atmosphere, so itтАЩs had less impact on the ocean…,тАЭ Zhang was quoted as saying.
тАЬThis area should be considered the open sea, very far from places where people live, so the human impact should be minimal.тАЭ
Rescue efforts had been particularly difficult because at 89 degrees Celsius, the vesselтАЩs compartments were too hot for workers to withstand for long, CCTV quoted He Wang, an expert from Chinese oil company Huade Petrochemical, as saying. (By: Arab News)
