TUNIS — A tanker carrying 750 tonnes of diesel fuel from
Egypt to Malta sank Saturday off Tunisia’s southeast coast, but officials said
a large spill could be avoided.
اضافة اعلان
The crew of the Xelo vessel had issued a distress
call on Friday evening and sought shelter in Tunisian waters from bad weather
before going down in the Gulf of Gabes in the morning, the authorities said.
Environment Minister Leila Chikhaoui said on
Saturday that “the situation is under control” in an interview aired on state
television.
“There are minimal leaks, which are not even visible
to the naked eye and fortunately the oil is evaporating, so there should not be
a disaster in the Gulf of Gabes,” said Mohamed Karray, spokesman for a court in
Gabes.
The spokesman had said earlier that the tanker
carrying 750 tonnes of diesel had issued the distress call before it “sunk this
morning in Tunisian territorial waters”.
The Equatorial Guinea-flagged Xelo was headed from
the
Egyptian port of Damietta to the European island of Malta when it requested
entry to Tunisian waters.
The tanker is 58m long and nine meters wide,
according to ship monitoring website vesseltracker.com.
It began taking water around seven kilometers
offshore in the Gulf of Gabes and the engine room was engulfed, according to a
Tunisian environment ministry statement.
It said Tunisian authorities evacuated the
seven-member crew.
Polluted waters
Environment Minister Leila
Chikhaoui was travelling to Gabes “to evaluate the situation... and to take
necessary preventive decisions in coordination with the regional authorities”,
a ministry statement said.
Authorities have activated “the national emergency
plan for the prevention of marine pollution with the aim of bringing the
situation under control and avoiding the spread of pollutants”.
Court spokesman Karray said the Georgian captain,
four Turks and two Azerbaijanis were briefly hospitalized for checks and were
now in a hotel.
The defense, interior, transport, and customs
ministries were working to avoid “a marine environmental disaster in the region
and limit its impact”, the environment ministry said.
Before the ship sank, the ministry had described the
situation as “alarming” but “under control”.
The Gulf of Gabes was traditionally a fishing area
but activists say it has suffered from pollution from phosphate processing
industries based nearby and the presence of a pipeline bringing oil from
southern
Tunisia.
The last maritime accident involving the country was
in October 2018, when Tunisian freighter Ulysse slammed into the
Cyprus-based
Virginia anchored about 30km off the northern tip of the French island of
Corsica, sending hundreds of tonnes of fuel spilling into the Mediterranean.
It took several days of maritime maneuvers to disentangle
the boats and pump some 520 cubic meters of propulsion fuel, which had escaped
tanks.
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