Explosion Reported On Board Oil Tanker Off Syria

The blast reportedly occurred during maintenance operations aboard the oil tanker.

An explosion occurred aboard an empty oil tanker off the coast of the Syrian city of Baniyas, local radio station Sham FM reported.

There were no reports on possible casualties or the scale of the damage done to the vessel at the time.

Several days ago there was a fire on the tanker, that occurred during stowage, the reports say.

The state-run Syrian news agency SANA then quoted the ministry as saying the blaze erupted after “what was believed to be an attack by a drone from the direction of Lebanese waters”. SANA provided no further details and did not clarify what country the tanker arrived from.