The Iranian oil tanker ‘Sanchi’ sank in the East China Sea, causing one of the worst oil spills in decades, local media reported on Sunday. The ship had been burning for more than a week, following collision with a Chinese freighter on 6 January.
The tanker, operated by National Iranian Tanker Co, was sailing from Iran to South Korea, carrying 136,000 tonnes of condensate, when it collided with the ‘CF Crystal’, about 160 nautical miles off the coast, near Shanghai and the mouth of the Yangtze River Delta, and went ablaze.
After suffering an explosion on Wednesday, which hampered the search and rescue and fire extinguishing operation, the ship suffered another explosion on Saturday noon which caused the sinking later in the day, Chinese media said. As the hull of the ship had detonated, a large amount of oil in surrounding waters was on fire, according to China’s State Oceanic Administration as quoted by Xinhua news agency.
The 10-mile long oil slick was tracked east of where the ship sank, rising concerns about damage to a wealthy marine ecosystem. A clean-up operation has already begun.
The ‘Sanchi’ was carrying a total of 32 crew members, 30 Iranian and 2 Bangladeshi nationals, all of whom were reported missing. One body was recovered soon after the tragedy and brought to Shanghai for identification, while another two bodies were recovered by rescue teams on Saturday.
The remaining 29 people were also presumed dead, according to Iranian officials’ estimations as cited by Reuters, causing the government to declare a day of national mourning on Monday.
The Chinese freighter involved in the collision, ‘CF Crystal’, carrying grain from the US, has berthed in Zhoushan in order to be investigated. All of its crew members were rescued.
