TOKYO, May 29 (AFP): An oil tanker was sinking off the Japanese coast Thursday after a large explosion and subsequent fire that sent towering columns of acrid smoke into the sky.
The 64-year-old captain of the ship was still unaccounted for hours after the accident, while four of his crew were in hospital being treated for severe burns, the coastguard said.
The vessel's boatswain, 61, remained unconscious with burns covering his entire body, it added.
The nearly 1,000-tonne tanker had unloaded its cargo of crude oil last week and was stationary close to the coast of Hyogo prefecture, around 450 kilometres (280 miles) west of Tokyo, when the explosion happened at about 9:20 am (0020 GMT).
The vessel slowly listed and was under water with only its stern above the surface by late afternoon, the local coastguard said.
Akihiro Komura, an official from Syoho Shipping, a Hiroshima-based shipping firm that owns the vessel, confirmed that seven of the eight Japanese crew were rescued, including those injured.
"The ship unloaded crude oil at a port in Hyogo prefecture, and the tanker was virtually empty when the accident occurred," he told AFP by telephone.
"I heard that a crew member was using a grinder to remove paint and that seems to have triggered the blast, which we believe could have occurred when the remnants of the oil caught fire.
"It is a Japanese ship and belongs to our company. All the crew members are Japanese nationals. We have confirmed seven out of the eight are alive and one, believed to be the captain, is still missing."
