LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) – The Russian-flagged liquefied natural gas tanker Arctic Metagaz is on fire in the Mediterranean, maritime security sources said on Tuesday, while Malta’s armed forces said the vessel’s crew had been located safe in a lifeboat within Libya’s search-and-rescue region.
The vessel, which is under U.S. and UK sanctions, last reported its position as sailing off the coast of Malta on Monday, according to ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform.
The vessel may have been attacked by a naval drone with Ukraine suspected of carrying out the operation, one of the sources said without providing evidence.
Malta’s armed forces said they had received a distress message about the vessel and had located it, without elaborating on the vessel’s state.
“Survivors were subsequently located within the Libyan SRR in a lifeboat during the search effort. All crew were reported safely onboard the lifeboat,” they said in a press release posted on Facebook.
The vessel’s Russia-based manager LLC SMP Techmanagement, Russian LNG producer Novatek and Russia’s transport ministry didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Security Service of Ukraine separately did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Jonathan Saul, Renee Maltezou, Chris Scicluna and Tom Balmforth; Editing by Susan Fenton and David Gregorio)
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