Drone Attack on Egypt Port Sparks Fears of Widespread Devastation

On Wednesday, a drone attack struck two gas vessels at Egypt's port of Damietta, causing concern that the entire port and surrounding city could have exploded. The US-owned Energos Winter floating storage and regasification unit and the Greek-owned LNG tanker GasLog Salem had a combined carrying capacity of 300,000 cubic metres.

The marine officers who battled fires aboard the vessels said they feared the ships were 'a bomb waiting to explode'. One officer recalled, 'The entire port could have exploded, along with parts of the city of Damietta.' The crews' quick actions helped contain the fire on the GasLog Salem within two hours.

The second explosion was at a connection point between both vessels. Emergency responders surrounded each vessel with four firefighting tugboats, separated them, and towed them away from critical port infrastructure while battling the flames. Investigators later recovered drone fragments from the vessels after the fires were extinguished.