Law enforcers have launched a hunt for the pirates who seized an oil tanker and looted 350 metric tonnes of furnace oil, authorities said on Sunday, three days after the incident. The tanker was carrying over 360 metric tonnes of furnace oil when it was attacked on Friday in Dhaleshwari-Shitalakkhya confluence near Char Mukterpur in Munshiganj. No arrest has been made until today and law enforcers are yet to recover the looted oil. The oil tanker, heading towards Gazipur from Narayanganj, was seized in the confluence around 6am on Friday. The armed pirates ambushed the running ship ‘OT Bin Zaman-1’ near the spot (confluence) while it was taking a turn. The six crew members, including the captain, were overpowered at gunpoint and their mobile phones and other valuables seized. The pirates blindfolded the crew with black cloth, locked them in the engine room, and took control of the tanker. After looting 350 MT out of 360.036 MT of furnace oil, worth around Tk 3.5 crore, the hijackers abandoned the tanker, owned by King Fisher Shipping Company, near the Meghna Bridge around 8:30pm and fled the scene. Summit Group is the owner of the furnace oil. Read: French destroyer in EU mission rescues 29 mariners from oil tanker stricken in Red Sea attacks The vessel's captain Saizul Islam said they had set sail from Summit Power in Narayanganj’s Madanganj area at 6am on Friday to deliver it to Summit Power in Gazipur. He said that six masked pirates with arms boarded the vessel initially and called one by "Dalim" during the attack. Fazlul Ahmed, manager of the shipping company, said that they lost contact with the ship, prompting them to alert the law enforcement.

The salvage operation of oil tanker MV-Sagar Nandini-2, which sank with 11 lakh litres of oil after another vessel hit it in the River Meghna Sunday, will be launched Thursday morning. Although two barges were supposed to come from Chandpur to retrieve the vessel that had capsized, one of them, Johura, arrived Tuesday night and another one could not reach the site on time, Coast Guard (South Zone) Media Officer KM Shafiul Kinjal said. The full-fledged salvage operation will start tomorrow as the remaining barge arrived in the afternoon, he said. Members of Coast Guard continued to skim oil from the sunken vessel to stop it from spilling into the river so that the biodiversity of the river is not affected, Shafiul said. "Also, they are working to ensure the security of Shagor Nandini-2." On Sunday, the vessel sank after being hit by another vessel in Meghna due to dense fog in Sadar upazila of Bhola. The oil on the ship spilled into the river. Later, local administration formed a nine-member probe body, headed by Additional District Magistrate Ripon Kumar Saha, to look into the incident. The committee was asked to submit its report within seven working days. Read more: Oil spill in Meghna river threatening environment, vessel still not recovered after 36 hours

An oil tanker associated with an Israeli billionaire has been struck by a bomb-carrying drone off the coast of Oman amid heightened tensions with Iran, an official told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The attack happened Tuesday night off the coast of Oman, the Mideast-based defense official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they did not have authorization to discuss the attack publicly. Read: Russian missiles cross into Poland during strike on Ukraine, killing 2 The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a British military organization in the region monitoring shipping, told the AP: “We are aware of an incident and it’s being investigated at this time.” The official identified the vessel attacked as the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon. That tanker is operated by Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping, which is a company ultimately owned by Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer. A phone number for Eastern Pacific rang unanswered Wednesday.  

Naval police on Tuesday recovered the body of a man who fell off an oil tanker at Chattogram port four days ago off the coast of Bhatiari Union in Sitakunda. The deceased was identified as Enamul Hoque Prakash Imran, 30, of Cumilla district. Chan Mia, sub-inspector of Naval Police of Sitakunda Kumira, said local fishermen spotted the body floating in the tidal waters off the coast of Bhatiari Union and alerted the police around 12pm. READ: Missing man’s body found in Dharala River Imran had slipped off the oil tanker named ‘Akij Hossain’ at Chattogram Port in the small hours of Friday, and had remained missing, added Chan Mia. The body has been handed over to his family, the SI said.

A powerful explosion on an oil tanker on Sungandha river in Jhalokathi on Friday, left a crew member dead and seven others injured, local administration said. The tanker, Sagar Nandini-3, was anchored at the dock when the blast occurred in its pump room while emptying octane from it, witnesses on board the vessel said. The dead crew was identified as Kamrul Islam, while the seven others were undergoing treatment at Barishal’s Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital for burn injuries. Fire service members with the help of locals rescued the injured. The tanker started sinking as its bottom was ripped apart by the impact of the explosion sending water gushing into it, said survivors. Kobad Ali Sardar, assistant director of the Barisal Fire Service, said the fire was brought under control after an hour-long effort. READ: Explosion at Bashundhara LPG factory in Mongla; 6 suffer burns Efforts are being made to prevent the ship from sinking. Arrangements are being made to unload the oil as soon as possible, he said. Barishal Deputy Commissioner Johur Ali and Police Super Fatia Yasmin visited the site and ordered steps to stop an oil spill. READ: Five workers burnt in Narayanganj steel mill explosion

An oil tanker exploded near Sierra Leone’s capital, killing at least 92 people and severely injuring dozens of others after large crowds gathered to collect leaking fuel, officials and witnesses said Saturday. The explosion took place late Friday after a bus struck the tanker in Wellington, a suburb just to the east of Freetown. The mortuary at Connaught Hospital reported 92 bodies had been brought in by Saturday morning. About 30 severely burned victims were not expected to survive, according to staff member Foday Musa. Also read: Huge fire extinguished at oil facility in southern Lebanon Injured people whose clothes had burned off in the fire that followed the explosion lay naked on stretchers as nurses attended to them Saturday. Video obtained by The Associated Press of the explosion’s aftermath showed a giant fireball burning in the night sky as some survivors with severe burns cried out in pain. Charred remains of the victims lay strewn at the scene awaiting transport to mortuaries. President Julius Maada Bio, who was in Scotland attending the United Nations climate talks Saturday, deplored the “horrendous loss of life.” “My profound sympathies with families who have lost loved ones and those who have been maimed as a result,” he tweeted. Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh visited two hospitals overnight and said Sierra Leone’s National Disaster Management Agency and others would “work tirelessly” in the wake of the emergency. Also read: Oil giants deny spreading disinformation on climate change “We are all deeply saddened by this national tragedy, and it is indeed a difficult time for our country,” he said on his Facebook page.

At least two persons were charred to death and more than three others sustained burn injuries in a fire that broke out at an oil tanker on the Karnafuli river at Chattogram port on Thursday, officials said. The deceased have been identified as the oil tanker's crew members -- Nizam Uddin, 40 and Ruhul Amin, 45. The three injured crew members -- Abu Sufian, Sahabuddin and Monir -- have been admitted to Chittagong Medical College and Hospital.   According to local sources, the fire broke out at the engine room of inland oil tanker MT Iravati at the Super Petro Chemical Jetty of the port around 7am.   A number of firefighting units from the Bangladesh Fire Service and the Navy were soon pressed into service and it took them a good four hours to contain the blaze, officials said,   Newton Das, deputy assistant director of Chattogram Fire Service and Civil Defence told UNB that an electrical short-circuit at the engine room of the vessel might have triggered the devastating fire.   Also read: Gas cylinder blast in Sylhet: Injured woman dies at DMCH   Shilbot Barua, an assistant sub-inspector of police posted at Chittagong Medical College and Hospital, said that the condition of two of the injured -- Monir and Shahabuddin -- is critical. Also read: 2 killed, 10 injured in Bhola gas cylinder blast   A probe has been ordered into the fire accident, officials said.

Iraqi explosives experts were working to defuse a large mine discovered on an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf and evacuate its crew, authorities said Friday.

An oil tanker off Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jiddah suffered an explosion early Monday after being hit by “an external source,” a shipping company said, suggesting another vessel has come under attack off the kingdom amid its yearslong war in Yemen.

Tehran, Oct 11 (AP/UNB) — Two missiles struck an Iranian tanker traveling through the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia on Friday, Iranian officials said, the latest incident in the region amid months of heightened tensions between Tehran and the U.S.