Ship fire out

A FIRE on board a Cyprus-flagged cargo vessel stranded off the northwestern coast of Scotland with 1,750 tonnes of inflammable chemicals on board was put out yesterday, the British Maritime and Coastguard Agency said.

The fire broke out on Friday and the crew of the Multitank Ascania was airlifted off by helicopter. Some 600 residents in a five-kilometre exclusion zone on the Dunnett coast were evacuated as officials feared the ship, anchored 2.5 nautical miles off the coast, might explode.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.