The tanker Annika caught fire in the Baltic Sea, off the port of Rostock in Germany, announced the German maritime search and rescue service which rescued the seven sailors who were on board, Friday October 11 around 10 a.m. Emergency services were still battling the fire on board the ship at midday.
According to the Central Command for Maritime Emergenciesthe ship, which measures 73 meters long and 12 meters wide and flies the German flag, is carrying around 640 tonnes of oil. Annika is anchored 4.5 kilometers from the coast.
The seven sailors on board “were recovered” by the crew of a rescue boat and brought back to land, said the same source. Several of them are ” slightly “ injured, but it is unknown how many of them.
A loud explosion
Rescue “are studying whether it is possible to board the tanker”explained the central command for maritime emergencies. An emergency towing vessel “cools the outer shell of the stern [l’arrière] of the tanker, where the fire apparently broke out ». Firefighters were transported from the ports of Rostock and Kiel in the north of the country and boarded a multi-purpose vessel docked with the tanker.
The German tanker is located in the Mecklenburg Bay, northeast of Germany, between two locations northwest of Rostock.
The authorities prohibited access to the maritime zone and airspace within a radius of 3 nautical miles (5.5 kilometers) around the damaged boat.
A strong explosion occurred Friday morning around 9:15 a.m. and black smoke then escaped from the ship, according to witnesses cited by the local newspaper Ostsee-Zeitung. According to the latter, Annika refueled ships at sea.
In a video posted online by Bilda firefighting vessel is seen throwing a powerful jet of water at the tanker, but no more flames or smoke are visible.
Source: Lemonde