Tanker hit near Romanian coast: crew reports three drones involved

Two crew members rescued from a tanker hit near the coast of Romania have said three attack drones struck the vessel.

Source: European Pravda, citing Digi24, a Romanian digital news platform

Details: In an exclusive comment to Digi24, two rescued sailors from the tanker Gas Lisbon said three drones hit the vessel.

A crew member from Georgia, Alexander Megrelidze, said he felt the first strike while sitting in his cabin, and that there were three strikes in total.

Megrelidze said that, despite the emotional strain, the crew followed protocol, evacuated the vessel and helped three injured teammates.

Another crew member, Alexander Arro, said the attack happened at around 23:00. He believes there were initially two drones: the first hit the engine room and another struck the accommodation area. A third attacked the vessel around three hours later. Romanian rescuers arrived four to five hours later.

Background:

• On 21 July, Romania's president reported that a Liberia-flagged tanker had been struck off the country's coast. The vessel was travelling from Alexandria, Egypt, to the Ukrainian port of Reni on the Danube. Romanian rescue workers evacuated the entire crew, with some sailors injured.
• Acting Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has condemned the Russian strike on a civilian tanker en route to a Ukrainian port and thanked Romania for swiftly rescuing the crew.
• Earlier, on 19 July, 10 people were killed in a Russian strike on a Guinea-Bissau-flagged merchant vessel Golden Leo carrying grain near Odesa.

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