Two dead, 11 rescued after fire onboard ship in Black Sea, Romania says

Oct 5 (Reuters) – Romanian authorities said on Monday that two people had died and others had been rescued after a fire on a ship in the Black Sea outside Romania’s territorial waters.

Romania’s interior ministry said 11 crew members of the ship, which it described as sinking, had been rescued. The country’s Naval Authority said the incident involved a fire on the ship Royad Mammadov.

The authorities did not give details on the cause of the fire, and a spokesperson for the Romanian Naval Authority said she could not provide more information.

Romanian media reported the ship was Turkish and carrying grain. The incident occurred near an oil platform operated by Romanian energy company OMV Petrom, media said.

The ship, flying under the flag of St Kitts & Nevis, was headed to Ravenna, Italy and was last in port at Izmail, Ukraine, according to website VesselFinder.com.

NATO member Romania shares a 614-km (382-mile) land border with Ukraine. Since the Ukraine-Russia war started four years ago, it has seen Russian drones breaching its airspace as well as mines floating in the Black Sea across key trade and energy routes.

(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Pawel Florkiewicz and Jason Hovet; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Jan Harvey)