JAKARTA – Three people were reportedly missing after a tanker caught fire off the coast of Indonesia’s West Nusa Tenggara province on Sunday, a rescuer said.

The vessel was operated by Indonesia’s state-owned oil company Pertamina, and the accident occurred just off the coast of the company’s oil storage facilities in Mataram city, said Mr Wahyu Efendi, head of the provincial search and rescue office.

“We received the information about the accident at 3.40pm local time (4.40pm Singapore time). There were 17 people on board, and 14 of them have been rescued, but three others remain missing,” he told Xinhua over the phone.

“We will resume searching for the missing people on Monday.”

Footage on Indonesian television network Kompas TV shows fire coming from near the ship’s foremast and plumes of thick black smoke.

In May 2020, seven people were killed and 22 injured when crude-oil tanker Jag Leela burst into flames at Medan city’s Belawan port, one of the country’s busiest ports. XINHUA