Diplomat: 2 Indian sailors killed, 2 missing in tanker fire

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Two Indian sailors were killed and two remain missing after an oil tanker caught fire earlier this week off the United Arab Emirates’ sheikhdom of Sharjah, an Indian diplomat said Friday.

Vipul, the Indian consul general in Dubai who goes by one name, made the announcement on Twitter after the incident aboard the oil tanker Zoya 1. He said two others were injured.

Emirati officials did not immediately acknowledge the deaths and the missing sailors. The state-run WAM news agency had described the tanker as unloaded and had said its crew had been rescued.

The blaze broke out some 21 miles (34 kilometres) off the coast of Sharjah. Emirati officials identified the ship as the crude oil tanker Zoya 1 and said it had a crew of 16 Indians and Pakistanis.

The mariners reportedly had been stuck on the vessel for a year, unpaid, trying to come ashore amid a legal dispute over the vessel.