Shipping company Hafnia said on Monday that one of its oil tankers, the BW Rhine, had been hit by an unidentified "external source" that caused fire and explosion while the ship was discharging at Jeddah port in Saudi Arabia.

British armed forces boarded and took control of a ship in the English Channel on October 26 and arrested seven people after a security incident on board, the Defense Ministry said. Photo: VCG

"BW Rhine has been hit from an external source whilst discharging at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at approximately 00:40 local time on 14 December 2020, causing an explosion and subsequent fire onboard," Hafnia said in a statement on its website.

The ship's crew put out the fire and no one was injured, the company said.

The company added that parts of the ship's hull had been damaged.

"It is possible that some oil has escaped from the vessel, but this has not been confirmed and instrumentation currently indicates that oil levels on board are at the same level as before the incident," Hafnia said.

The BW Rhine, owned and operated by Hafnia, is a Singapore-flagged tanker with capacity to carry 60,000-80,000 metric tons of light and middle distillate oil products, according to Hafnia and shipping data on Refinitiv.

The tanker loaded about 60,000 metric tons of gasoline from Yanbu port on December 6, the data showed. It is currently 84 percent full, according to its draft.