An explosion occurred on board a cargo ship near the Romanian port of Sulina on Wednesday morning.

According to Digi 24, the Romanian Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure reported that a Togolese Republic-flagged vessel carrying cement reported an explosion in the engine room at 6:50. 

The vessel was seven nautical miles east of Sulina, with 12 crew members on board, including 5 Syrians, 4 Turks, 1 Lebanese and 1 Egyptian.

The Romanian Navy urgently requested the assistance of the vessel ARSVOM, owned by the Border Police. On board, the crew members were safely transported to Sulina. 11 people had panic attacks, and one person was bruised.

"The 90m long and 14m wide cargo vessel SEAMA is currently anchored, and rescue operations are underway. Navigation on the Sulina area has not been disrupted," the Romanian ministry said.

The Romanian Navy is investigating the incident. The publication admits that the vessel could have hit a sea mine, but this is not yet confirmed.

However, it is known that the Romanian Navy sent a ship with divers to the site of the incident to search for sea mines, Antena 3 CNN reports.

The port of Sulina is located near the border with Ukraine in the Danube Delta.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Romanian, Bulgarian and Turkish military diving teams have been regularly clearing mines drifting in their waters.

In addition, there have been several recent incidents in Romania where debris resembling drone fragments have been found in the border areas near Ukrainian targets shelled by Russia. The Romanian authorities did not immediately acknowledge the downing of drones on their territory, as claimed by the Ukrainian side.

With the start of Russian strikes in August 2023 on the infrastructure of Izmail and Reni, Romania also checked whether drones or drone debris had fallen on its territory.