A Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) ship, the Arctic Metagaz, sank in the central Mediterranean between Libya and Malta after a “sudden explosion” sparked a massive fire on board, Libyan ports and shipping authorities said on Wednesday.They added that the 30 crew members were rescued in nearby Libyan waters.Libya’s ports and shipping authority said the tanker Arctic Metagaz “had experienced sudden explosions followed by a massive fire, which ultimately led to its complete sinking,” ultimately leading to the complete sinking of the tanker north of the Libyan coast.There have been no immediate reports of casualties among the crew.According to local reports, Russia’s Transport Ministry later accused Ukraine of launching a naval drone attack on the tanker from the coast of Libya, alleging that the Metagaz Arctic was hit by unmanned surface ships, but kyiv has not publicly commented on the accusation.
The Maltese military, whose Rescue Coordination Center helped coordinate the response, said the survivors of the Arctic Metagaz were found in a lifeboat within the Libyan search and rescue area and that they were all safe.Tracking data showed that the ship had previously loaded LNG on a Russian floating storage unit before sailing around Western Europe to the Mediterranean, where its Automatic Identification System signal disappeared approximately 30 nautical miles off the northeast coast of Malta before the fire.The Armed Forces of Malta said they were alerted to a dangerous situation involving the Metagaz Arctic outside Malta’s search and rescue region and initiated verification procedures, located the ship and worked with international partners before survivors were later found in a lifeboat in Libyan waters.According to Maltese and Libyan authorities, the crew abandoned the ship as the fire spread and were subsequently transferred to another ship after rescue coordination messages were transmitted to nearby ships.