Stricken Tanker Sinks Off Genoa

Rocked by one last explosion, a fire-ravaged tanker holding millions of gallons of oil sank Sunday off the Italian Riviera, and experts worked to avert an ecological catastrophe in the Mediterranean.

The Cypriot-registered tanker Haven appeared to have remained intact on the sandy sea bottom 1 1/2 miles offshore, and it was believed that most of the vessel’s crude remained inside, officials said.

The tanker held nearly 42 million gallons of Iranian crude when it caught fire Thursday. A Genoa port authority official, giving “an extremely rough” estimate, said 15 million gallons of oil may have burned.

A few hours after the tanker sank some oil came to the surface, but officials believe it was released as the tanker settled on the bottom, said an Environmental Ministry marine ecology expert, Eugenio Fresi. How much oil leaked was not known.

Patches of oil have washed ashore on several stretches of beach along a 20-mile swath of the resort coast west of Genoa, and currents moved other slicks that one official described as “leopard spots” on the sea.

The tar reached shore within 40 miles of the French border Sunday and could reach the principality of Monaco by today, according to Greenpeace, the international environmental organization. Monaco is about 90 miles southwest of Genoa.

Videos taken by robots showed that the tanker had settled flat on the bottom.

At least six sailors were killed when the Haven exploded Thursday. Twenty-nine crew members were hospitalized with burns and smoke inhalation, 11 of them in critical condition.

Officials have theorized that sparks from cleaning equipment may have ignited gas pockets in the tanker.

Three more explosions rocked the tanker Saturday, and the final blast came on Sunday morning--4 1/2 hours before the Haven went under.