The Hafnia Shipping Company stated that one of its oil tankers was hit by an unknown “external source”, which caused a fire and an explosion during the unloading of the vessel in the port of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
“BW Rhine has been hit from an external source whilst discharging at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at approximately 00:40 local time on 14 December 2020, causing an explosion and subsequent fire on board,” Hafnia said in a statement on its website.
The company said that the crew put out the fire, and no one was injured adding that parts of the ship’s hull were damaged.
The British Maritime Trade Operations Authority reported that an explosion struck a ship off the Saudi port of Jeddah on the Red Sea.
A couple of weeks ago a Greek tanker was hit in a similar way off the coast of Jeddah, with some parties accusing Yemen’s Ansarallah Movement of carrying out the attack.
