MOSCOW, May 25. /TASS/. Two mines were discovered near the stern of the Arrhenius gas carrier, coming from Belgium, the vessel’s captain Igor Loy said.
"Upon arriving at the port of Ust-Luga for the next loading, the ship underwent a diving inspection of the underwater section of the hull. Two mines were discovered attached near the stern, in the area of the engine room," he said in a video posted by the press office of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
According to Loy, his ship operates between the ports of Ust-Luga and Antwerp. The vessel arrived at the Belgian pilot station on May 12, and the crew received orders to drop anchor because the port was not ready to receive the gas carrier due to an alleged workers’ strike. "We then remained at anchor for nearly two days and received orders to proceed to the port. We proceeded to the port as usual. The vessel moored at the pier. <...> Unloading took approximately 25 hours," the captain noted. The gas carrier remained at the terminal the entire time. The vessel departed in the morning. "In other words, we spent the night near the pier," Loy noted.
The ship then sailed to the port of Ust-Luga at an average speed and did not stop anywhere along the route.
Earlier, the FSB reported that a terrorist attack had been prevented on the Arrhenius gas carrier, whose hull was riddled with magnetic mines.