Fire broke out Friday on a Greek-flagged oil tanker attacked by Houthi rebels, with the vessel appearing to be adrift in the Red Sea, authorities said.
It wasn’t immediately clear what had happened to the oil tanker Sounion, which had been abandoned by its crew on Thursday and reportedly anchored in place.
The Houthi rebels are suspected to have attacked at least one other vessel that later sank.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center reported the fires in a note to mariners on Friday night.
“UKMTO have received a report that three fires have been observed on vessel,” the center said. “The vessel appears to be drifting.”
The vessel had been staffed by a crew of 25 Filipinos and Russians, as well as four private security personnel, who were taken by a French destroyer to nearby Djibouti, the European Union’s Aspides naval mission in the Red Sea said Thursday.
The Sounion has 150,000 tons of crude oil aboard and represents a “navigational and environmental hazard,” the mission warned. “It is essential that everyone in the area exercises caution and refrains from any actions that could lead to a deterioration of the current situation.”
Late Friday night, the Houthis released footage of an explosion striking the Sounion, with their fighters on the water in the distance chanting the group’s slogan.
The Houthis have targeted more than 80 vessels with missiles and drones, seized one vessel and sank two in their campaign that also killed four sailors. One of the sunken vessels, the Tutor, went down after the Houthis planted explosives aboard it, after its crew abandoned the ship due to an earlier attack, the rebel group later acknowledged.
Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a US-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets.
Early Saturday, the US military’s Central Command said it had destroyed a Houthi missile system over the last 24 hours in an area controlled by the Houthies.