One man was killed and two others declared missing after an oil tanker caught fire while it was being refueled off Hong Kong on Tuesday, sending a huge cloud of dark smoke billowing into the air. Fire department commander Yiu Men-yeung said the container ship was about to be refueled by an oil barge when the accident occurred. He told reporters that according to the crew on the barge, they were “connecting the hoses for refueling for the oil tanker, and then there were three explosions”, before the ship burst into flmes. A Hong Kong government statement said firefighters used four jets to contain the blaze, which could be seen not far off the southern side of Hong Kong’s Lamma island. Local media reported that the oil tanker had already offloaded all the products it was carrying at the time of the accident, citing the marine department.

Source: Egypt Independent January 08, 2019 12:11 UTC