Fire which broke out overnight at an oil products warehouse has paralysed the main cargo port in the Gulf emirate of Sharjah, police said on Saturday. "All facilities available in the port have been mobilised to put out the fire which is now under control", interior ministry under-secretary Lieutenant General Saif al-Shaafar told AFP.
He said that tugboats normally used to bring ships into Port Khalid are all being used to spray water on smouldering oil tanks and other oil storage areas s.
Two large oil reservoirs caught fire as well as hundreds of barrels of oil-products while three other large tanks were spared, Shaafar said, speaking from the scene of the massive blaze. No casualties were reported. Port Khalid on the Gulf coast handles the majority of the cargo traffic in Sharjah, which is one of the seven emirates forming the federation of the United Arab Emirates.