The commercial cargo ship Xelo, carrying 750 tons of diesel fuel, sank nearly seven kilometers off Gabes port, east Tunisia, on Saturday. Units from the Tunisian navy managed to rescue the seven-member crew of the doomed vessel and rushed them to a hospital in Gabes. Medical sources said the crewmembers are in stable condition. The accident raised the specter of a potential “an environmental disaster,” prompting the government to put the local authorities on high alert. The Environment Ministry said in a press release it is following closely with profound concern the ecological consequences of the shipwreck, noting that the situation is under control at present. The ill-fated ship, carrying the flag of Equatorial Guinea, was en route from Damietta, Egypt, to Malta, when it sank apparently due to bad weather. A merchant ship, en route from Equatorial Guinea to Malta, made an emergency call about ten kilometers from Gabes, to which the Tunisian Navy responded. The cause of the accident was bad weather, the Environment Ministry said, according to the Reuters news agency. It added water entered the ship and reached a height of two meters. The Tunisian Ministry of the Environment has described the situation around the ship as “alarming” and has drawn up an “urgent national intervention plan”. The Tunisian Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of the Interior and the Customs Office are working to “prevent an environmental disaster in the region and limit its impact”. The Ministry of the Environment has announced that for the present, the situation is “under control”. — Agencies