Japanese oil tanker listing after explosion

[TOKYO] A 998-tonne oil tanker was listing off the Japanese coast yesterday after an explosion and subsequent fire that sent towering columns of acrid smoke into the sky.

One person was still unaccounted for more than two hours after the accident.

The tanker had unloaded its cargo of crude oil and was stationary close to the coast of Hyogo prefecture, around 450 kilometres west of Tokyo, when the explosion happened.