The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said that it had received reports of a vessel on fire north-west of the United Arab Emirates' emirate of Sharjah, Reuters reported.
The company added that it received a report by email.
Alleged footage of the tanker has been shared online.
BREAKING: Footage of Tanker on fire off the coast of the Emirate if Sharjah, UAE #oott #tanker #fire pic.twitter.com/32GDx3YUdI
— Katie McQue (@katiemcque) January 29, 2020
According to reporter Katie McQue, the ship on fire is called Zoya, and the distress signal came from the MV Osprey.
Correction: Zoya 1 on fire. It got a bit mixed up because the distress call to the port came from the Osprey - call pinned on my page #oott https://t.co/J6COm2RbCg
— Katie McQue (@katiemcque) January 29, 2020
Earlier, the reporter said that the ship on fire was the MV Osprey, adding that it was a Norwegian heavy load carrier.
BREAKING: Ship on fire is MV Osprey. Position 25 degrees, 34.8 055degrees, 0.5 East , according to distrsss call #OOTT #tankerfire #UAE #Sharjah
— Katie McQue (@katiemcque) January 29, 2020
BREAKING: Vessel on fire is Norwegian (again!) #oott #tanker #fire #sharjah #uae pic.twitter.com/U256LFaH9y
— Katie McQue (@katiemcque) January 29, 2020
The National quoted a representative from the UKMTO who said that the tanker went up in flames at about 4 pm, while it was nearly 40 km off the UAE's coast between Sharjah and Abu Musa island. He added that it was unclear how many crew were on board at the time of the incident.
According to the news service, this has been the third boat fire in the UAE in two weeks. On 26 January, a yacht caught fire in Dubai Marina, while on 17 January a fire broke out off Burj Al Arab when a vessel's engine failed and some leaked fuel ignited.
