LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) – The Russian flagged liquefied natural gas tanker Arctic Metagaz is on fire in the Mediterranean with the fate of its crew unknown, shipping and maritime security sources said on Tuesday.
The vessel, which is under U.S. and UK sanctions, last reported its position as sailing off the coast of Malta on Monday, according to ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform.
The vessel may have been attacked by a naval drone with Ukraine suspected of carrying out the operation, one of the sources said without providing evidence.
The vessel’s Russia-based manager LLC SMP Techmanagement, Russian LNG producer Novatek and Russia’s transport ministry didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Security Service of Ukraine separately did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Jonathan Saul, Renee Maltezou, Chris Scicluna and Tom Balmforth; Editing by Susan Fenton)
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