MOSCOW: A Russian cargo ship that ran into trouble on Monday (Dec 23) in the Mediterranean Sea and later sank was rocked by a series of three explosions in “an act of terrorism,” state news agency RIA cited the vessel’s owner as saying on Wednesday.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the “Ursa Major,” built in 2009, sank after an explosion ripped through its engine room and that two of its 16 crew were missing.
RIA cited Oboronlogistika, the ship’s ultimate owner and a company that is part of the Russian Defence Ministry’s military construction operations, as saying on Wednesday that the vessel had been targeted in “a terrorist act.”
It cited Oboronlogistika as saying that the ship’s surviving 14 crew members had reported that three consecutive explosions on the ship’s starboard side had detonated at 1350 Moscow time (1050 GMT) in the vessel’s aft on Dec. 23.
The ship had then begun to sharply list as it was obviously taking in water, RIA cited Oboronlogistika as saying. The ship was not overloaded, it added.
It was carrying two giant port cranes on its deck with their loading buckets, two heavy hatch covers for ice-breaking vessels, 129 empty containers, and a 20-foot container with roofing equipment, RIA said.
