PARIS, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- An explosion on an oil tanker off the coast of Yemen seems likely due to a terrorist attack, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced late Thursday.
The initial conclusion comes after French, American and Yemeni investigators began looking into the blast aboard the French Limburg oil tanker Sunday as it headed for a port near Aden.
"The first results of the inquiry by the French, Yemenis and Americans suggest that the explosion on the French Limburg oil tanker, Oct. 6, was an attack," the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The follow-up of the inquiry will be able to verify these initial results, and determine the exact cause of the explosion," the statement said.
Reports have been simmering for days that the explosion on the French ship, off the Yemeni coast, was deliberate.
Earlier this week, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin did not rule out the blast may have been deliberate. But this is the first time that Paris has formally floated such an initial conclusion.
Twenty-four crew members were injured in the blast, and one man drowned after he leapt off the tanker.
At least one crew member has told reporters he saw a small, high-speed boat heading directly for the ship, before the blast occurred.
But Yemeni officials initially said the boat was intended to lead the tanker to port.
Paris has now called for new security reinforcements of its overseas embassies and other diplomatic posts, along with new measures to protect its citizens living overseas.
In addition, the Foreign Ministry said, the government will look into new measures to reinforce security on board French commercial ships.
If the initial finding proves correct, this would not be the first time French citizens overseas have been targeted in a terrorist attack this year. In May, a suicide attack on a bus in Karachi, Pakistan, killed nearly a dozen French naval workers.
