Eight crew missing in tanker fire off Romania’s coast

Eight of 12 crew members are missing after a tanker caught fire off Romania’s coast, naval authorities say, and there are reports of explosions on board.

The San Marino-flagged Wine Trader was about 13 nautical miles (24km) east of the mouth of the River Danube at Sulina, when it reported explosions and a fire on Thursday morning.

The west coast of the Black Sea has seen a spate of drone attacks in the past two weeks and there are unconfirmed reports from nearby ships that the tanker was hit by two drones.

Swarms of Russian drones were detected overnight not far from the scene of Thursday’s fire, near Ukraine’s Snake Island.

On Tuesday, two merchant ships were struck by drones further south along the coast of Bulgaria, Romania’s neighbour, and one of the vessels sank. Bulgaria said it suspected Russia was behind that attack, summoning the country’s envoy.