A bulk carrier with a load of coal bound for the Port of Algeciras from the Port of Baltimore is stable and under surveillance in the territorial waters of Gibraltar after suffering an explosion on Friday night.
Four crew were injured in the incident which left the 120 000-deadweight-tonnage CSSC Cape Town without the ability to use its anchor.
Two of the injured seafarers were treated on board by medevac paramedics.
Two more were airlifted to the St Bernard’s Hospital in Gibraltar from where they were moved to a burns unit in Seville.
The two patients, both of them Chinese nationals, are said to have suffered burns of 40% and 25% respectively, and they remain under observation.
From what Gibraltar Port Authority Personnel could ascertain, the explosion occurred near the forecastle of the Hong Kong-flagged vessel.
No foul play is suspected and Royal Gibraltar Police officials are still on board the CSSC Cape Town investigating the explosion.
The incident marks the second time in one month that a bulk cargo vessel has experienced calamity at sea.
Earlier this month at least four crew members went under along with the MV Arvin after the 46-year-old vessel, which had been found by Georgian port authorities to be structurally unsound, broke up and sank in the Black Sea off the Turkish coast east of the Strait of Istanbul.
