A commercial ship caught fire on the evening of August 27 in the Black Sea, in Romania’s exclusive economic zone, and the 12 people who were on board were rescued.

“Following the rescue operation, by 21:00, all 12 people who were on board the commercial vessel were rescued. Of these, ten people were rescued by border police officers, one of them being injured, and two other people were rescued by the other merchant ship’s crew,” Romanian border police stated.

The Romanian Border Police on Friday confirmed the fire on board a commercial ship sailing through Romania’s exclusive economic zone, but did not provide a cause.

“During this evening, we had an incident that was on the limit, but outside our territorial waters. We had a vessel that had been hit. Fortunately, through the intervention of our coast guard, all crew members were rescued, for which I congratulate the Coast Guard teams for acting promptly and in adverse weather conditions. (…) The vessel was hit and appears to have sunk. But at the moment we do not know by whom, what kind of…,” President of Romania Nicușor Dan told journalists during a press conference at the end of his visit to Moldova.

“There will be an investigation and it will be established, but it is not good to engage in speculation now,” Dan said, emphasizing that at present no information was available as to who might have been involved in the incident.

On August 27, around 19:00, the border police officers from the Coast Guard were informed by MRCC Constanta that a fire had broken out on board a commercial vessel located in Romania’s exclusive economic zone, approximately 20 nautical miles south-east of Sfântul Gheorghe.

MRCC Constanta launched a search and rescue operation for people in distress at sea.

Following information provided by a commercial vessel in the area, according to which people had been spotted in the water, the border police officers immediately took action to search and rescue them.

As a result of the rescue operation, by 21:00 all 12 people who had been on board the commercial ship had been rescued.

“The search and rescue operation was carried out in difficult conditions, with waves approximately 2.5 metres high, but the rapid intervention of the border police officers, who coordinated the two ARSVOM vessels and the commercial vessel, ensured the rescue of all people in distress,” Romanian Border Police said.

Investigation is carried out to establish the circumstances and causes that led to the occurrence of the event.