SMOKE RISES FROM AN IRANIAN OIL TANKER AFTER A BLAST THAT IS BELIEVED TO HAVE KILLED ALL 32 ABOARD.
A burning Iranian oil tanker exploded and sank Sunday after more than a week listing off the coast of China, as an Iranian official acknowledged there was “no hope” of missing sailors surviving the disaster.
The collision and disaster of the Sanchi, which carried 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis, had transfixed an Iran still reeling from protests and unrest that swept the country at the start of the year.
Families of the sailors wept and screamed at the headquarters of the National Iranian Tanker Co. in Tehran, the private company that owns the Sanchi. Some needed to be taken by ambulance to nearby hospitals as they were so overwhelmed by the news.
“Thirty-two people died without a funeral and without coffins! They burned to ashes while their families were wailing here!” cried out one woman who didn’t give her name. The government “has come after 10 days to sympathize with them? What sympathy are you talking about?”
State TV earlier quoted Mahmoud Rastad, chief of Iran’s maritime agency, as saying: “There is no hope of finding survivors.”
President Hassan Rouhani expressed his condolences.