Fire on oil tanker still raging after 24 hours

The fire engulfing an oil tanker that collided with another vessel at the mouth of the Yangtze River yesterday morning is still raging, and new plan to extinguish the flames is currently being carried out, the Shanghai Maritime Search and Rescue Center announced on Friday.

A total of 16 vessels have been dispatched to the site to put out the fire. On Friday morning, three rescue ships started spraying sea water in hope of lowering the temperature. Later, a fire fighting vessel began spraying foam onto the oil tanker.

The tanker was transporting about 3,000 metric tons of gasoline when it collided with another vessel carrying sand and rock at 3:39 am Thursday.

Three people were rescued on Thursday. The remaining 14 individuals were still missing as of press time.