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Burning oil tanker sinks off China after one week | |
(35 minutes later) | |
An oil tanker burning in the East China Sea for more than a week has finally sunk, Chinese media say. | An oil tanker burning in the East China Sea for more than a week has finally sunk, Chinese media say. |
The Sanchi and a cargo ship collided 260km (160 miles) off Shanghai on 6 January, with the tanker then drifting south-east towards Japan. | The Sanchi and a cargo ship collided 260km (160 miles) off Shanghai on 6 January, with the tanker then drifting south-east towards Japan. |
Iranian officials now say all 32 crew members - 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis - on the tanker are dead. | |
The tanker was carrying 136,000 tonnes of ultra-light crude but Chinese officials say there is no major slick. | The tanker was carrying 136,000 tonnes of ultra-light crude but Chinese officials say there is no major slick. |
China Central Television said that the Sanchi had gone down after "suddenly igniting" around noon (04:00 GMT). | |
Some 13 vessels and an Iranian commando unit had been taking part in the salvage operation, amid bad weather. | |
A spokesman for the Iranian team, Mohammad Rastad, said there was no hope of finding any survivors. | |
On Saturday, salvage workers had boarded the vessel and found the bodies of two crew members in a lifeboat. | |
Only one other body had been found during the week of salvage operations. | |
The rescue workers retrieved the ship's black box but had to leave quickly because of the toxic smoke and high temperatures. | |
The Panama-flagged Sanchi was bringing the condensate from Iran to South Korea when the collision with the Hong Kong-registered freighter CF Crystal, carrying grain from the US, happened in the East China Sea. The crewmen of the Crystal were all rescued. | |
The cause of the collision is still not known. | |
After the collision the Sanchi drifted at about 2.2km/h (1.4mph), south-eastwards towards the Japanese island of Amami Oshima. | |
Condensate is very different from the black crude that is often seen in oil spills. | |
It is toxic, low in density and considerably more explosive than regular crude. | |
Condensate creates products such as jet fuel, petrol, diesel and heating fuel. |
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