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A complete of 16 vessels have been deployed to convey the blaze underneath management by Friday evening.
Colombo:
A hearth-stricken oil tanker was pushed away from Sri Lanka’s coast and into deeper waters on Saturday, rescuers stated, after efficiently containing the blaze throughout a 36-hour operation.
The Panamanian-registered New Diamond carrying 270,000 tonnes of crude had drifted dangerously near the jap shores of Sri Lanka since issuing a misery message on Thursday morning.
The Indian Coast Guard and the Sri Lankan navy stated the 330-metre (1,000-foot) vessel was towed in a single day to deeper waters some 60 kilometres (37 miles) away from the coast.
#ICG & Sri Lankan ships and plane alongwith tug ALP Winger after consolidated efforts efficiently towed #MTNewDiamond greater than 35 NM away from #SriLanka coast to protected waters. #FireFighting continues and hearth now decreased. No oil slick reported. pic.twitter.com/bvbnd1fLtw
— Indian Coast Guard (@IndiaCoastGuard) September 5, 2020
“There is no oil slick reported,” the Indian Coast Guard stated after a joint effort by the 2 international locations to include the blaze.
Sri Lanka’s navy stated rescuers have been nonetheless spraying foam on the vessel however that the blaze had been introduced underneath management.
There was no rapid hazard of the tanker breaking apart regardless of a two-metre (6.6 toes) crack within the hull 10 metres above the waterline, it stated.
The hearth was triggered by an engine room explosion that killed a Filipino crewman on Thursday morning because the vessel was passing Sri Lanka on its approach to the Indian port of Paradip.
It issued a misery sign 60 kilometres from Sri Lanka’s jap coastal city of Sangamankanda Point.
Three tugboats — two Indian and one chartered by the homeowners — have been introduced into motion on Friday evening to push the vessel again into deeper waters amid fears of an environmental catastrophe ought to the oil leak.
A complete of 16 vessels, together with specialised firefighting tugs and 4 plane, have been deployed to convey the blaze underneath management by Friday evening.
Sri Lanka’s Marine Environment Protection Agency stated authorized motion could possibly be taken towards the homeowners, Liberian-registered Porto Emporios Shipping Inc “should the worst happen and the ship breaks up”.
Sri Lankan officers stated they have been contemplating a ship-to-ship switch of the crude earlier than salvaging the tanker.
The vessel is bigger than the Japanese bulk provider MV Wakashio, which crashed right into a reef in Mauritius in July leaking greater than 1,000 tonnes of oil into the island nation’s pristine waters.
The Maldives, which neighbours Sri Lanka, has raised considerations that any oil spill from the New Diamond may trigger severe environmental injury within the atoll of greater than 1,000 coral islands that’s closely depending on tourism and fishing.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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