Oil tanker listing off Japan after huge explosion
A 998-tonne oil tanker was listing off the Japanese coast on Thursday after a large explosion and subsequent fire that sent towering columns of acrid smoke into the sky.
The 64-year-old captain of the ship was still unaccounted for hours after the accident, while four of his crew were in hospital being treated for severe burns, according to coastguards.
The tanker had unloaded its cargo of crude oil last week and was stationary close to the coast of Hyogo prefecture, around 450 kilometres (280 miles) west of Tokyo, when the explosion happened.
Akihiro Komura, an official from Syoho Shipping, a Hiroshima-based shipping firm that owns the vessel, told AFP that seven of the eight Japanese crew were safe.
"The ship unloaded crude oil at a port in Hyogo prefecture, and the tanker was virtually empty when the accident occurred," he told AFP by telephone.
"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.
