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Oil tanker and fishing boat collide off Hong Kong
HONG KONG, March 12, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – An oil tanker and a fishing boat
collided Tuesday morning off Hong Kong’s Lamma Island, police said, sinking
the fishing vessel.
Thirteen people on the oil tanker — thought to be everyone on board —
were found safe, a police spokeswoman told AFP.
Police said they were still looking for possible missing people from the
fishing boat.
The size of the vessels involved in the collision — which took place near
Lamma, a popular outlying island — was not immediately known.
The incident comes just two months after one man was killed and two
declared missing when an oil tanker caught fire while it was being refuelled
off Hong Kong in January.
But fears of a potential environmental catastrophe in a busy shipping
channel also known for porpoises and turtles were dampened after officials
said no leak had been detected from the vessel which was not carrying any oil
cargo at the time of the accident.
In 2017 a massive spillage from a ship collision in mainland Chinese
waters leaked one thousand tonnes of palm oil with some reaching Hong Kong’s
shores, forcing beaches to close and killing some fish.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1011 hrs