A tanker from the UAE carrying some 58,000 tonnes of naphtha was involved in a collision with a cargo ship late on Tuesday in the Strait of Malacca, leaving nine crewmen from the oil vessel missing, a Malaysian maritime official said.

Oil traders said on Wednesday the tanker carrying the naphtha cargo from the UAE was chartered by Cargill and was enroute to Daesan, South Korea.

The official from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said there was no danger of oil spill from the tanker, Formosaproduct Brick, which was still on fire after the incident, but shipping in the busy waterway was not disrupted.

The Liberian registered tanker with 25 crew, caught fire after the collision with the Ostende Max, a British registered bulk carrier ship.

The collision occurred at 10 pm (1400 GMT) in international waters at the Straits bordering Malaysia and Indonesia.

'We have towed the tanker to the edge of international shipping lines 18 nautical miles (33 kilometres) offshore from Port Dickson and alerted all vessels in the area, so there is no disruption or delays to shipping in the Straits,' said the official. – Reuters