Ten dead in oil tanker blast

Tеn workers were killed in a powerful explosion aboard a Maltese oil tanker today as they carried out onboard repairs in the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta, officials said.

"That's the final toll. Rescue crews have completely gone over the ship," the spokesman for the port's shipyard, Sorinel Putinei, said.

The death toll had been revised upwards several times in the hours following the blast on the ship, which appeared to have been sparked by a soldering iron.

Firefighters struggled for some time to put out a blaze caused by the explosion.

There were some allegations from several workers that the ship, the Anapolis, had not been properly flushed of fuel fumes before the work. A few said they had refused to work on the ship because of fears of an accident.

But the Constanta shipyard denied there were any problems, saying the necessary guarantees had been received before work began.

An official inquiry has been opened into the incident.

news.com.au