The explosion that crippled a French supertanker off Yemen killing one of the crew was not an accident, the ship's captain insisted today as French experts joined an inquiry into the blast.
"The way the explosion happened it could not be due to a technical problem," Mr Hubert Ardillon told reporters. "A member of the crew told me, he saw a small boat approach and I believe him," the Limburg's master said.
"At least the first explosion occurred on the outside of the ship. I am positive about that. I saw it. I totally rule out the theory of an accident," Mr Ardillon said.
Mr Ardillon was backed by a crew member: "I saw a small boat heading at full speed towards our ship, towards the spot where the fire occurred in the hull."
He was on the bridge when he said he saw the boat. "When you look below from that height, there's a blind spot, which means that when I saw the boat for the last time it was only around 10 metres from the Limburg and heading fast for the hull. But I did not see it hit the ship". The body of a Bulgarian fitter from the supertanker was found on the shore today, a Yemeni official said.
The French embassy in Sanaa said the damage was caused by a small boat packed with explosives that rammed the tanker on Sunday, recalling the Islamist attack on October 12th, 2000, on the US destroyer Colein the southern Yemeni port of Aden that killed 17 men.
A US official said yesterday that initial evidence suggests the explosion was accidental, as Yemen has claimed, and not terrorism.
AFP