A ship carrying 750 tons of gas sank off the southeast coast of Tunisia
A tanker carrying 750 tons of diesel gas from Egypt to Malta sank on Saturday within the Gulf of Gabes off the southeastern coast of Tunisia, prompting a rush to keep away from a spill.
“The ship sank this morning in Tunisian territorial waters. For the time being, there isn’t any leakage,” stated native courtroom spokesman Mohamed Karay.
He added that the catastrophe prevention committee will meet within the coming hours to “take a call on the measures to be taken.”
The ship Zelo, flying the flag of Equatorial Guinea, headed from the Egyptian port of Damietta to the European island of Malta when it requested to enter Tunisian waters on Friday night attributable to dangerous climate.
The tanker is 58 meters (63 yards) lengthy and 9 meters vast, in accordance with ship-monitoring web site Vesseltracker.com.
It started drawing water seven kilometers (greater than 4 miles) offshore within the Gulf of Gabes and crowded the engine room, in accordance with a Tunisian Surroundings Ministry assertion.
She stated the Tunisian authorities had evacuated the seven-member crew.
Surroundings Minister Leila Chikhaoui headed to Gabes “to evaluate the scenario… and to take the required preventive choices in coordination with the regional authorities,” in accordance with a ministry assertion.
The authorities have activated the “nationwide emergency plan for the prevention of marine air pollution with the goal of controlling the scenario and avoiding the unfold of pollution.”
Court docket spokesman Karai stated the Georgian captain, 4 Turks and two Azerbaijanis had been briefly taken to hospital for exams and are actually in a resort.
The Ministry of Surroundings stated the Ministries of Protection, Inside, Transport and Customs had been working to keep away from “a marine environmental catastrophe within the area and restrict its impression.”
Earlier than the ship sank, the ministry described the scenario as “alarming” however “beneath management.”
The Gulf of Gabes has historically been a fishing space, however activists say it has suffered from air pollution attributable to phosphate processing industries stationed close to town of Gabes.
The nation’s final sea accident was in October 2018, when the Tunisian cargo ship Ulysses collided with the Cypriot island of Virginia moored about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the northern tip of the French island of Corsica, spilling lots of of tons of gas there. Mediterranean.
It took a number of days of naval maneuvers to disassemble the boats and pump about 520 cubic meters of propellant, which escaped from the tanks.
(AFP)
