A tank ship with petrol exploded on the Ems River, in Germany, on Monday night.

The vessel carried 900,000 tons of fuel. The ship sank, while the fire that flared up was raging for hours on end despite the fact that firefighters prevented it from spreading on the water surface. One of the firefighters suffered burns.

Ship traffic along the canal from Dortmund to Ems has been cut off. Police are inquiring into the cause of the blast.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/03/29/48139680.html

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http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,753761,00.html