Update | Fire engulfs Japanese tanker after explosion
Seven out of eight Japanese crew accounted for but one more, believed to be captain, missing
A 998-tonne oil tanker was listing off the Japanese coast on Thursday after an explosion and subsequent fire that sent towering columns of acrid smoke into the sky.
One person was still unaccounted for more than two hours after the accident.
The tanker had unloaded its cargo of crude oil and was stationary close to the coast of Hyogo prefecture, around 450km west of Tokyo, when the explosion happened.
Akihiro Komura, an official from Syoho Shipping, a Hiroshima-based shipping firm that owns the vessel, said that seven of the eight Japanese crew were accounted for, but the fate of the captain was not yet known.
“The ship unloaded crude oil at a port in Hyogo prefecture, and the tanker was virtually empty when the accident occurred,” he said.
“I heard that a crew member was using a grinder to remove paint and that seems to have triggered the blast, which we believe could have occurred when the remnants of the oil caught fire.
“It is a Japanese ship and belongs to our company. All the crew members are Japanese nationals. We have confirmed seven out of the eight are alive and one, believed to be the captain, is still missing.”