An oil tanker exploded and burned off the coast of Himeji, Japan, in the Seto Inland Sea that separates the four main islands.  Seven out of the eight crewmembers are accounted for, but the captain was missing.

A column of acrid black smoke towered from the 998-ton Shoko Maru ship as it burned and listed in the busy shipping lane.  Japanese Coast guard firefighting boats were on the scene quickly, but the ship is pretty badly damaged.  The only good news is that it had already unloaded its cargo at Himeji before the blast.

“The tanker was virtually empty when the accident occurred,” said Akihiro Komura of Shoho Shipping, the vessel’s owner.  “I heard that a crew member was using a grinder to remove paint and that seems to have triggered the blast, which we believe could have occurred when the remnants of the oil caught fire.”

Of the rescued crewmembers, four were rushed to hospital with severe burns.

Himeji is an active port city best known as the home of Himeji Castle, perhaps the most beautiful and best preserved of Japan’s feudal castles.