Updated 6.45pm with authorities' reaction

Aerial pictures taken on Saturday morning showed an oil slick coming out of a bunkering vessel which ran aground at Qawra Point last week. 

"It is stretching out towards fish farms, polluting coastal areas and clearly there are no measures being taken to contain collect and or protect further damage," the reader Conrad Micallef, who sent in the pictures, told Times of Malta.

The Maltese maritime authorities had said the tanker had no cargo and there was no risk of pollution. It was carrying four cubic metres of fuel, but Environment and Resources Authority officials monitoring the site said there was no risk of it seeping out.

Transport Malta said on Saturday evening that the salvage contractor is deploying oil spill equipment to contain a "minor diesel sheen" that seeped out from the vessel earlier in the day.

Transport Malta and Environment Resources Authority personnel have been monitoring the vessel since it ran aground and are following the situation closely.

Even though the sheen may look dramatic, there is no cause for alarm as the sheen remains on the surface of the water and will evaporate slowly

"The vessel does not contain any heavy oil and thus there is no real risk of pollution. Water has reached a breach in the hull and an amount of old diesel seeped out from within. Even though the sheen may look dramatic, there is no cause for alarm as the sheen remains on the surface of the water and will evaporate slowly."

The four cubic metres of fuel remain untouched, the authorities said.

The adverse weather conditions are unfortunately making it impossible to salvage the ship at this point in time, however if the weather forecast remains as is, the contractor will start pumping out the oils remaining on the ship from Sunday.

The vessel Hephaestus, a 60-metre tanker registered in Togo ran aground in Qawra on Sunday due to the inclement weather.

The 885-tonne vessel ran aground after a violent storm, whipped up by northerly Force 6 to 7 winds, forced it to crash against the rocks. All the crew was rescued.

The vessel ran aground in Qawra last Saturday.The vessel ran aground in Qawra last Saturday.

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