LONDON, March 13. /TASS/. The UK has so far not informed the Russian Embassy that Russian crew members were aboard the container ship Solong that collided with the tanker Stena Immaculate and caught fire off the UK coast on March 10, the embassy said.
"Despite numerous appeals from the consular section of the embassy that have been made since the day of the incident, the British authorities have not yet told us that there were Russian nationals among the crew of the Solong cargo ship," the embassy said. "At the same time, according to information at hand, the captain of the vessel is reportedly a Russian citizen. We are awaiting official confirmation of this information from the British side. In case it is true, we will seek consular access to our fellow citizen."
Reuters earlier reported, citing the German company Ernst Russ, which owns Solong, that the captain of the container ship was a Russian citizen. He has been detained by UK authorities. It was also reported that crew members include citizens of Russia and the Philippines.
On March 10, the Portuguese-flagged container ship Solong collided in the North Sea with the US-flagged tanker Stena Immaculate, which was anchored at the time. The impact set off multiple explosions aboard the tanker and ruptured its cargo tank, causing a release of some jet fuel into the sea. Both vessels caught fire.
The Stena Immaculate’s 23 crew members and 13 members of the Solong’s 14-strong crew were evacuated. The UK Coast Guard terminated the search operation for the missing crew member after spending 12 hours to locate him.