Tanker burns after collision

A TANKER burst into flames yesterday after colliding with a container ship in a shipping channel off the coast of Dubai.

Two of the tanker’s crew who were pulled from the water suffered minor injuries but no one died, said Sarah Lockie, a spokeswoman for Dubai-based port operator DP World. The blaze has been extinguished.

The tanker struck a “feeder vessel”, a ship that shuttles cargo containers from big ports to smaller ones, about 8km from the Jebel Ali Port, Lockie said.

She said the tanker was carrying a liquid used to make plastic.

Photos of the burning tanker taken by a sightseeing plane show what looks like substantial damage on the port, or left, side.

Fire extended from the waterline to above the top of the tanker, said witness Cameron Leslie, a pilot and director of flight operations at Seawings air charter service in Dubai.

What looked like “viscous material” pouring from the ship also burned on top of the water, as did two other chunks of wreckage about a half mile away, he said.

“To me, it looked horrific... It must’ve been a pretty intense fire,” Leslie said. “I wouldn’t have wanted to have been on deck, mate.”

The Maltese-flagged tanker, Kashmir, was carrying about 30,000 tons of oil condensate, according to Stephen Olley of the Lloyd’s Marine Intelligence Unit in Britain. It was headed from Iran to the UAE.