members deadBy K J M VarmaBeijing, Jan 14 (PTI) An Iranian oil tanker that has beenablaze for almost a week after colliding with a cargo ship offthe coast of China today sank with no hopes of finding anysurvivors among the 32 crew members.
The 274-meter-long Sanchi, carrying 136,000 tonnes oflight crude oil from Iran to South Korea, had been burningsince colliding with the CF Crystal, a Hong Kong-registeredbulk freighter, about 300 kms east of the Yangtze Riverestuary on on January 6.
China's State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said in astatement that it detected fires and dense black smoke in alarge area around the Panama-registered oil tanker at around10 am (local time) today and the entire ship sank at around 3pm.
A large amount of spilled oil is still burning on thesurface around the site, the SOA said.
The administration said it will monitor the oil spillsand evaluate the accident's impact on the marine environment,state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Iran announced that all the ship's 32 crew members --30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis were presumed dead, accordingto Iranian state media.
Only three bodies have been recovered so far.
"There is no hope of finding survivors among the membersof the crew," Mohammad Rastad, spokesman for the Iranianrescue team, told Iran's state broadcaster in Tehran beforethe tanker went down.
"Despite our efforts, it has not been possible toextinguish the fire and recover the bodies due to repeatedexplosions and gas leaks," he said.
Chinese rescuers had yesterday recovered the tanker's"black box".
Chinese maritime authorities had launched a search andrescue operation for the 30 Iranian and two Bangladeshi crewonboard the Sanchi.
All 21 Chinese crew members on the bulk freighter wererescued.
Environment experts had expressed fear that the accidentcould create a massive environmental disaster and kill offmarine life across a wide area. PTI KJVPMS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.