A luxury yacht went up in flames early yesterday morning, but no one was injured. The yacht capsized in the creek shortly after mid-day.

Dubai Civil Defence said the yacht was berthed at Dubai Creek after it was delivered from Al Jaddaf.

The privately-owned vessel, called "Silver Swan", was loaded with 80,000 litres of fuel. A dozen onlookers gathered at the scene as crackling flames and heavy smoke filled the air.

The operations room was alerted at 7.17am, and firefighting teams from Al Karama and the Sea Firefighting Unit battled the blaze and managed to bring it under control within minutes.

The firefighting team spraying the burning vessel. @Gulf News
It took some three hours to extinguish the flames, and ensure that they did not spread to other ships docked nearby. Units from Al Hamriya and Al Satwa also took part.

The vessel, 50 metres long and seven metres wide, was completely gutted. It had just undergone repairs at Al Jaddaf. The value of the vessel is not yet known. No one was on board at the time of the incident.

The Environment Protection Patrol of Dubai Municipality took part in extinguishing the fire.

Engineer Hamdan Al Shaer, Director of Environment Department, said that a working group in the Environment Protection and Safety Section in the department rushed to the scene immediately after receiving a call from the Emergency Office of the municipality.

He said the team, led by Engineer Redha Salman, Head of the Section, actively took part in extinguishing the fire that destroyed the vessel.

Al Shaer said the team's participation in the operations was part of the coordinated efforts with other departments. The team aboard the marine cleaning vessel of Dubai Municipality, "Baladiyat", pumped water over the burning vessel helping the firefighters.

Salman said the team also removed the debris resulting from the fire in order to keep the Creek water clean.Dubai Civil Defence is investigating the cause of the fire.