Situation on Turkish cargo ship unchanged

The situation on the Turkish cargo ship "Und Adriyatik" is unchanged, tugboats are keeping the ship with steel ropes at a distance of some ten nautical miles from the coast of the northern Adriatic peninsula of Istria, the commander of the Istria County Rescue Service, Dino Kozlevac, said on Friday morning.

White smoke was billowing from the ship's prow and the fire was still smoldering inside the hull this morning, but the situation was much better than on Thursday and a team of Dutch specialists started boarding the ship.

The Dutch firemen were unable to board the ship until today because of a gale and the fact that the ship's hull was hot.

The Dutch firemen will soon be joined by local fire-fighters, Kozlevac said, adding that there were no signs of sea pollution.

The 193-metre-long Turkish ship, carrying nine tonnes of hazardous material and 200 trucks, including two tonnes of matches and six tonnes of truck grease, was en route from Istanbul to the Italian port of Trieste when it caught fire 15 miles west of the Croatian resort of Rovinj early Wednesday morning.

The ship caught fire on the border between Croatia's territorial waters and its Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone. (Hina)

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