KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has detained a large oil tanker that collided with another vessel off its coast and fled the scene, the coast guard said on Sunday (Jul 21).
The Sao Tome and Principe-flagged Ceres I tanker had collided with the Singapore-flagged Hafnia Nile two days ago, causing both ships to catch fire, the coast guard said in a statement.
The Ceres I then illegally left the location of the collision and turned off its tracking system, it added.
A maritime air and sea search was immediately activated by Malaysian authorities.
“Malaysia has successfully located and detained the Ceres I together with two tugboats that were towing it” off the country’s eastern coast, Zin Azman Mohamad Yunus, the coast guard’s search and rescue commander, said in the statement.
He did not say why the Ceres I had fled, but said further investigations will be carried out.
Singapore authorities said on Friday that 36 crew members from both vessels were rescued, but 26 remained on the Ceres I to fight the fire.
Aerial surveys conducted by the Malaysian coast guard meanwhile found an oil spill covering five square nautical miles (17 sq km) at the scene of the collision.
When the collision happened, the two tankers were also within Singapore’s maritime search and rescue region, about 55km northeast of Pedra Branca, according to Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) in a news release on Friday.
Pedra Branca is located near the eastern entrance of the Singapore Strait, about 44km east of mainland Singapore.
Singapore’s military activated a navy vessel and a helicopter to help with evacuation operations following the collision.
