Engineers looking into cause of German oil tanker fire

Investigators on Tuesday boarded a heavily damaged oil tanker that caught fire in German waters in the Baltic Sea late last week, starting a probe into the cause of the fire.

The tanker ship Annika was travelling between the German Baltic Sea ports of Rostock and Travemünde with 640 tonnes of heavy oil when a fire broke out on board on Friday morning.

At the time, the ship was about 4.5 kilometres off the coast of the eastern German town of Heiligendamm, a popular Baltic Sea resort.

Clouds of smoke could be seen from the beach, and photos showed the entire aft deck in flames.

After initial extinguishing work at sea, the 73-metre-long and 12-metre-wide ship was towed into Rostock's overseas port by tugboats on Saturday morning, where the final firefighting work was carried out.

It has since been moored in a secured area in the Rostock harbour and surrounded by oil barriers as a precaution against any possible leaks.

On Tuesday morning, two nautical engineers accompanied by police investigators boarded the ship to begin looking for clues into what caused the blaze.

The teams of experts boarded the ship after the fire brigade released the vessel, said nautical engineer Margaret Schindler from Germany's Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation (BSU).

Schindler and another engineer will be responsible for compiling a report on the cause, although she said the investigation will likely take more than a year.