In brief
A 190‑metre Liberia‑flagged cargo ship, the Ocean Melody, caught fire while undergoing maintenance in Qingdao, China, on 10 September 2026. Twenty‑five crew members were killed and 17 others were evacuated, five of whom are in hospital in stable condition. Chinese officials called for full rescue operations, and the blaze was extinguished after more than three hours. The incident occurs amid heightened scrutiny of shipping safety after a recent shipyard explosion in Fujian.
Twenty‑five people have been killed in a fire on the Ocean Melody, a 190‑metre (623‑ft) cargo ship flagged in Liberia, while it was docked for maintenance in Qingdao, China.
According to CCTV, the blaze erupted at roughly 11:15 local time (03:15 GMT) and was contained after just over three hours.
In total, 42 people were aboard the vessel. Seventeen were evacuated, and five of those rescued are now hospitalized in a stable condition. The remaining crew members remain missing.
The Ocean Melody had arrived in Qingdao on 31 August. MarineTraffic records the vessel’s size and flag status, corroborating CCTV’s reporting.
Premier Li Qiang urged the rescue of those trapped aboard, while President Xi Jinping called for an “all‑out” search and rescue effort and cautioned against secondary disasters.
Qingdao is one of the world’s busiest ports and a major trading hub. The incident follows a fuel‑based explosion at a shipyard in Fujian about a month ago that killed a rescue worker and injured 12 others.
