One dead, two still missing after explosion rips through oil and chemical tanker off Hong Kong’s Lamma Island
- Rescue operation under way to find crewmen as 23 others are rescued
- Firefighters finally put out blaze after battling it for about five hours
A crewman was killed, seven injured and two are still missing after an oil tanker caught fire off the coast of Lamma Island in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
Three explosions were reported during the fire, with residents from as far away as Mui Wo and Discovery Bay on Lantau Island saying they heard loud bangs and saw windows shaking.
Authorities said the blaze, which began at around 11.30am and was finally put out at 4.30pm, is believed to have started when the Aulac Fortune, a Vietnamese-registered vessel, was in the process of being refuelled by an oil barge.
The 144-metre (472-foot) tanker, which has a tonnage of 11,290, was on its way to Thailand after unloading oil cargo in Dongguan, Guangdong province, but stopped off one nautical mile south of Lamma Island for the refuel. There was no oil cargo on the tanker at the time of the fire.
Yiu Men-yeung, the Fire Services Department’s division commander for marine and diving, said on Tuesday evening the explosions and fire broke out on the tanker’s deck when the crew were connecting hosepipes to transport fuel from a nearby oil barge.