Five crew members have been taken to hospital after a reported gas poisoning on a Turkish MR tanker.
The Hurriyet daily said the seafarers were overcome on the 46,000-dwt Sealion I (built 2002) on Monday night while the vessel was anchored off Istanbul.
Fumes had been present in a tank on the Panama-flag ship, the report said.
The master was among those evacuated after teams from Turkey’s General Directorate of Coastal Safety boarded the ship.
The directorate said in a statement: “Five victims who were reported to have been poisoned in the tanks of the ship Sealion I, which was anchored in Ahirkapi and requested medical evacuation, were taken by our KEGM-6 fast lifeboat and handed over to the medical teams in Atakoy marina.”
Photos released by the agency showed seafarers with oxygen masks on after being winched from the tanker’s deck on stretchers.
Turkish operator Imza Denizcilik has been contacted for further information.
The tanker had left Tuzla in Turkey on 9 October and was due to reach Novorossisyk in Russia on 10 November.
AIS data showed the ship underway in the Black Sea on Tuesday morning.
The Sealion 1 has insurance through the West of England club.
Clean port state record
The ship has a clean port state control inspection record.
Two deficiencies were found at the last check in Greece in April, however.
There was a missing endorsement by the flag state on crew certificates, and decks were corroded.
In 2021, two South Korean stevedores died in a possible gas asphyxiation incident on a Greek bulker.
Franco Naviera, the Athens-based operator of the 53,500-dwt Eny (built 2006), told TradeWinds that the men lost consciousness and later died following the arrival of the ship at Bukpyung in South Korea for discharging operations.
The vessel had arrived from Rizhao in China.
