Turkey’s NTV channel reported that unidentified drones attacked an oil tanker owned by the Turkish company ALTURA in the Black Sea off the Turkish coast, causing damage and prompting the crew to issue a distress call.
According to the channel, the tanker—carrying 140,000 tons of crude oil from Russia—was hit by a drone near Istanbul, about 15 nautical miles from the Bosphorus Strait.
An explosion reportedly occurred on the ship’s bridge, while water leaked into the engine room, according to the Turkish maritime news site “HaberDenizde.”
There were no immediate reports of injuries among the 27-member Turkish crew.
Turkish Coast Guard units and the emergency response vessel “Nene Hatun,” designed for such incidents, were dispatched to the scene.
Vessel tracking data showed that the Suezmax-class tanker was fully loaded with around one million barrels of Urals crude from Novorossiysk, according to Bloomberg.
The tanker “Altura” is subject to sanctions by the United Kingdom and the European Union, but is not sanctioned by the United States.
