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One killed, four missing after tanker catches fire off east Malaysia

26 July 2012 20:05 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. At least one people was killed and 4 remained missing after fire broke out on a tanker early Thursday morning near a petrochemical plant in the federal territory of Labuan, an island off east Malaysia, authorities said, APA reports quoting XInhua.

Malaysia International Shipping Corporation (MISC) confirmed in a statement that a fire broke out on its 38,000 DWT IMO II chemical/palm oil tanker Bunga Alpinia at 2:30 a.m. local time.

The company said 24 of the 29 crew members comprising Malaysians and Filipinos aboard the tanker had been brought on shore safely while five went missing.

Malaysian Maritime enforcement officer Awil Kamsari said the body of 28-year-old Shahril Azmi Baharuddin, one of the missing crew members, was found floating several hours after the tanker blazed up.

Authorities are still searching for the four missing people.

Meanwhile, three people were injured in the accident.

Police said a lightning strike might have triggered the blaze on the tanker, which was believed to be carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the time, alongside the methanol terminal owned by Malaysia’s state oil and gas firm, Petronas, the local Star newspaper reported.

Abd Hapiz Abdullah, a senior Petronas official, said the explosion occurred a few hours after the loading process was being carried out.

Witness said the weather was bad when the incident occurred, and several explosions were heard.