Ship fire kills nine off Venezuela

CARACAS: Nine sailors were killed and five were burned in a Christmas Day blaze aboard a Greek freighter in waters off a Venezuelan Caribbean island, the official Venezuelan news agency reported on Friday.

It quoted Admiral Carlos Maximo Aniasi, commander of Venezuela's navy, as saying the blaze broke out in an engine room of the "Aegean Wind" before dawn and spread upward on the vessel, which was carrying iron ore from Brazil to Houston and had a 24-strong crew.

"Nine bodies were found in different compartments of the Greek ship," the admiral said.

The bodies belonged to nine sailors reported missing earlier in the day on the ship 33 nautical miles (61 km)northeast of the island of La Blanquilla, Aniasi said.