Oil tanker on fire off Dubai port after collision

Two of the tanker's crew who were pulled from the water suffered minor injuries but no one died, said Sarah Lockie, a spokeswoman for Dubai-based port operator DP World. The blaze has been extinguished.

The inbound tanker struck a "feeder vessel," a ship that shuttles cargo containers from big ports to smaller ones, about five miles (eight kilometers) from the Jebel Ali Port, Lockie said. She said the tanker was carrying a liquid used to make plastic.Details about damage to the ships were not immediately available. However, photos of the burning tanker taken by a sightseeing plane and provided to The Associated Press show what looks like substantial damage on the port, or left, side of the tanker.

Fire extended from the waterline to above the top of the tanker as thick black smoke billowed hundreds of feet in the air out of a gash in the ship's hull, said witness Cameron Leslie, a pilot and director of flight operations at Seawings air charter service in Dubai.What looked like "viscous material" pouring from the ship also burned on top of the water, as did two other chunks of wreckage about a half mile away, he said."To me, it looked horrific. ... It must've been a pretty intense fire," Leslie said. "I wouldn't have wanted to have been on deck, mate."

Leslie, whose company provided the photos, said the container ship was also on fire.Police helicopters and boats along with the Emirates Coast Guard and the port's emergency response division assisted in the rescue efforts, officials said.Lockie said the ships involved in the accident have been removed from the shipping channel, where traffic has returned to normal.