A Japanese Oil Tanker Exploded, then Sunk And The Captain Is Missing
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An oil tanker exploded and then sank off the Japanese coast on Thursday. The explosion happened at about 9:20 am (0020 GMT).
The Hiroshima-based shipping firm Syoho Shipping is the owner of the vessel.
About 1,000-tonne capacity tanker had unloaded its cargo of crude oil just week ago and was stationary off the coast of Hyogo prefecture, some 450 kilometres west of Tokyo.
Seven of the eight Japanese crew were rescued. The 64-year-old captain of the ship was still missing for near 12 hours after the accident. Four of the crew members are in hospital being treated for severe burns.
Representative of the company said:
"It is a Japanese ship and belongs to our company. All the crew members are Japanese nationals. We have confirmed seven out of the eight are alive and one, believed to be the captain, is still missing."
"I heard that a crew member was using a grinder to remove paint and that seems to have triggered the blast, which we believe could have occurred when the remnants of the oil caught fire.”
Fire-fighters tackled the blaze for more than five hours, so the fire was extinguished by the time the ship sank.
"We confirmed a small quantity of oil was floating on the sea, but we don't know the exact volume," he said.
