UPDATED: Explosion sets Iranian oil tanker ablaze in Red Sea, crew safe

An explosion set an Iranian oil tanker on fire near the Saudi port city of Jeddah, Iran’s Students News Agency (ISNA) reported on Friday, adding experts believed it was a “terrorist attack”.

The blast hit a tanker that belongs to National Iranian Oil Company and set the vessel ablaze 120km off the coast from Jeddah.

Iranian officials said two rockets struck the tanker.

All crew members of an Iranian oil vessel that was on fire in the Red Sea after an explosion are safe and the situation of the tanker is stable, Iran’s Nour news agency reported on Friday.

“None of the crew members were injured at the explosion… the situation is under control,” the news agency, close to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps, reported.

The explosion caused heavy damage and oil is spilling into the Red Sea, unnamed sources told ISNA.

Lt. Pete Pagano, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet overseeing the Mideast, said authorities there were “aware of reports of this incident,” but declined to comment further.

Via Al Jazeera