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The oil tanker “New Diamond” off the coast of Sri Lanka on 03 September 2020 afp_tickers
This content was published on September 03, 2020 – July 07:35,
(AFP)
Indian warships participated with the Sri Lankan Navy on Thursday in extinguishing a fire on a tanker carrying a large cargo off the island’s east coast, authorities said.
A Navy spokesperson, Indica de Silva, said the “New Diamond,” carrying a crew of 18 Filipinos and five Greeks, made a call for help Thursday after an explosion in the engine room.
He added that one of the Filipino crew members was lost and another was injured, while a Panamanian-flagged ship rescued the rest.
One of the ship’s commanders, who is also a Filipino, was seriously injured and taken to the Kalumnay district hospital, 360 km east of the capital Colombo.
Sri Lankan authorities affirmed that there is no immediate danger on the coast if there is an oil spill from the tanker loaded with 270 thousand tons of crude and 1700 tons of diesel, but they do not rule out this possibility.
De Silva told AFP that two Russian anti-submarine boats, “Admiral Tributes” and “Admiral Vinogradov”, also arrived at the site of the wrecked ship, but were later withdrawn because they could not effectively fight the fire.
The “New Diamond” was traveling from Kuwait to the Indian port of Paradeep.
The “New Diamond” is classified as a very large tanker with a length of 330 meters.
