While 7 crew members, including 4 Turks, were evacuated, the Tunisian Ministry of Environment declared that “the situation is under control”. The tanker XELO, carrying 750 tons of diesel fuel from Egypt to Malta, sank in the Gulf of Gabes on the southeast coast of Tunisia. Authorities confirmed that the Equatorial Guinea-flagged ship had sunk, and announced that the ship had to anchor on Friday evening due to bad weather conditions.
According to the statement made by the Tunisian Ministry of Environment, the engine room of the ship, which started to take in water about seven kilometers off the coast in the Gulf of Gabes, was flooded in a short time. Four of the seven crew members rescued from the ship were Turkish citizens, while the others were Georgian and Azeri.
Explaining that the situation is under control, the Tunisian Ministry of Environment announced that an “emergency plan” has been put into use in order to prevent an environmental disaster.
It was reported that floating barriers were placed around the ship in order to prevent the spread of the leak. “There have been very few leaks, but they are not visible to the naked eye and fortunately the oil is evaporating, so we do not expect an environmental disaster to occur in the Gulf of Gabes,” said Mohammed Karray, spokesman for a court in Tunisia.
The ship, bound for Malta, requested permission to enter Tunisian territorial waters, citing adverse weather conditions on Friday.
AFP,dpa / BÖ,ET