sunk saturday boat A commercial cargo carrying 750 tons of fuel was subjected to a marine accident due to bad weather off the southern coast of Tunisia, and its seven-person crew was evacuated, a local court said.
“The ship sank today in Tunisian waters,” Mohamed Karray, spokesman for the (south-east) Gabes court, told AFP. He added, “So far, there is no fuel leakage,” adding that the disaster committee will meet “to take decisions in the form of what has happened.”
The Ministry of Environment said earlier Saturday in a statement that the merchant ship “Kiselo” was flying the flag of Equatorial Guinea and bearing the number “IMO 7618272”. It is “loaded with about 750 tons of Qazoal,” according to the ministry.
The Ministry of Environment confirmed that the situation of the ship was “alarming” and announced the activation of the “national plan for urgent intervention” in the event of marine pollution in order to avoid the ship’s sinking.
The ship was coming from the Egyptian port of Damietta and heading to Malta. But difficulties prevented it from continuing its course due to bad weather and turbulence in the sea, and on Friday evening, it asked the Tunisian authorities to enable it to enter the country’s territorial waters.
It was allowed to anchor about seven kilometers from the coast of the Gulf of Gabes (south). However, sea water seeped into the engine room, submerging it to a height of two metres.
Tunisian authorities evacuated the seven-person crew from the ship, according to the ministry.
The official spokesman indicated that the crew consisted of a Georgian captain, four Turks and two Azerbaijanis. They were taken to the hospital and then accommodated in a hotel while they are “in normal condition.”
She added that the Ministries of Defense, Interior, Transport and Customs Administration are working to “avoid the occurrence of a marine environmental disaster in the region and limit its repercussions.” But she stressed that “the situation is currently under control.”