A huge explosion rocked Dubai tonight as a fire tore through a container ship at the biggest port in the Middle East.
Locals said the blast shook windows, with a fireball seen shooting into the sky above Jebel Ali Port.
Emergency vehicles could be seen racing south of Dubai on the main road that leads to Abu Dhabi tonight.
The blaze is now said to be ‘under control’, with no deaths or injuries reported.
Al Arabiya cited the Dubai government as saying the ship’s crew had been evacuated in time.
It was spurred by an explosion from a ‘normal accident’ in a container holding flammable material, DMO Director-General Mona Al Marri told Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television channel.
Seif Eddine Mouelhi told Sky News she ‘heard a double blast and felt a light wind coming to me’ as she sat on her balcony working.
She said: ‘I was looking to the sky if this was a thunderstorm or an airplane breaking the supersonic wall.
‘I am living 23km [14 miles] from the area where the explosion happened – I’m living in Business Bay and the explosion happened in Jebel Ali.’
The media office for Dubai said in a tweet: ‘A fire has been reported to have broken out in a container within a ship anchored in Jebel Ali Port. A Dubai Civil Defense team is working to put out the blaze.’
An update later read: ‘A fire caused by an explosion within a container on board a ship at Jebel Ali Port has been brought under control; no causalities have been reported.’
DP World, which owns Jebel Ali Port, had no immediate comment.
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