Traffickers set 30 tonnes of drugs alight

Italian police say they were tipped off about a major drug cargo sailing across the Mediterranean. When they intercepted it, the traffickers set it alight.

Egyptian and Syrian drug traffickers have set fire to their own ship carrying 30 tonnes of hashish after being intercepted by Italian maritime patrols.

Italian police said on Saturday they were tipped off three days earlier about a major drug cargo on the ship sailing across the Mediterranean.

They said in a statement they approached the ship on Friday and tried to board the 85-metre cargo vessel registered in Tanzania.

"The nine crew members, Egyptian and Syrian nationals, set fire to the ship to destroy their precious cargo and jumped into the sea," it said.

The traffickers were fished out of the water and arrested by Italian police and the fire was extinguished after several hours.

Maltese forces helped put out the fire on the Gold Star, a spokesman for the Maltese military told AFP, adding that it had deployed three patrol boats and a helicopter in the area.