BUCHAREST — Rescuers searched on Thursday for eight crew members missing from a chemical tanker that caught fire overnight inside Romanian territorial waters in the Black Sea, according to Reuters.
The missing sailors were aboard the San Marino-flagged Wine Trader. Romania’s naval authority said it got an emergency alert from the tanker, and four of its 12 crew members were safe.
A second ship caught fire earlier. The Yara J, a Comoros-flagged chemical and oil tanker, was anchored near the Wine Trader, and all of its crew were safe.
Romanian authorities said it was not yet clear whether the Yara J had been attacked. Defence Minister Radu Miruta said radar systems did not show a drone headed for the ship.
“Whether it was struck by a drone or not, an investigation is currently underway.”
Both ships were anchored near the mouth of the Danube River’s Sulina Canal, a route ships use while waiting to pass through, often after delays from weather and congestion. The canal is a major shipping route for Ukraine.
Officials stopped short of explicitly linking the fires to Russian drones that strayed into Romanian airspace. The fires follow drone strikes on at least five other cargo ships near the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria, both NATO members, over the past 10 days, and at least 23 sailors were lost in those strikes, which took place just outside NATO territorial waters.
Romania shares a 614-kilometer (381-mile) border with Ukraine, much of it along the Danube, and has reported repeated breaches of its airspace by Russian drones over the past four years.
Attacks on Black Sea shipping tied to the Russia-Ukraine war have grown in recent months, raising risks for grain exports, as both countries are major exporters.
