Tanker blast leaves 1 dead, 16 injured in Turkey's İzmir

An explosion at an oil tanker killed one person and injured 16 others in Turkey’s western Izmir province, an official said.

The vessel was anchored at a harbor at the Petkim petrochemical plant operated by the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR, Aliaga Sub-Governor Erhan Gunay told reporters.

He said 15 Italian sailors, one Romanian and one Petkim worker were hospitalized.

Italian Roberto Montegurdia died in the incident, the governor said.

"At Petkim Pier 5 around 23:20 (2020 GMT), a fire broke out due to an unspecified reason during the connection to the Italian flagged Synzania for the filling of liquid hydrocarbons," Petkim said in a press statement.

"As a result of the immediate intervention of our teams, the fire was extinguished and cooling work on the ship is continuing," it added.