Four Britons have been rescued after their motor yacht caught fire before sinking off the coast of Menorca.
The fire broke out in the engine room and quickly spread to the rest of the ship in Mahon, the capital of the Mediterranean island, on Sunday.
Dramatic footage showed coastguards rushing to help and trying to extinguish the fire with high-pressure water jets as a huge plume of black smoke rose into the sky.
Rescuers initially planned to tow the 40-foot boat to Mahon harbor so firefighters could tackle the blaze with more advanced equipment.
But the Coast Guard ultimately decided to take it further out to sea to minimize the risk of explosion before it sank.
The fire broke out in the engine room and quickly spread to the rest of the ship in Mahon, the capital of the Mediterranean island, on Sunday.
Dramatic footage showed coastguards rushing to help as they tried to extinguish the fire with high-pressure water jets as a huge plume of black smoke rose into the air.
The British nationals had already been rescued unharmed and brought ashore on a sailing club boat in Mahon harbour.
It was not immediately clear this morning whether they were holidaymakers or lived locally.
The tragedy occurred at around 6pm on Sunday when the motor yacht was in an area known as the Mahon Canal. It sank about two hours later, about four nautical miles southeast of Mahon harbour.
This morning the nationality of the occupants became known.
A Spanish Coast Guard spokesman said last night: ‘On Sunday evening a fire broke out on board a 12 meter motorboat in the Mahon Canal.
‘The crew were rescued by sailors from the Mahon Sailing Club.
‘A tugboat began towing it before Coast Guard vessel Antares took over, while at the same time efforts were being made to extinguish the fire.
‘It finally sank at around 8pm at a depth of 92 metres. The Coast Guard vessel collected the floating debris.”
In June, a British couple was injured in a boat explosion in Mallorca. They were taken to hospital with second-degree burns after the June 16 incident at the port of Palma.
The 44-year-old man and the 30-year-old woman are said to have been operating the engine of a Zodiac-type semi-rigid boat when the explosion occurred and sent them flying into the water.
Another ship moored next to it also caught fire.
In addition to burns to their faces and arms, the injured couple also suffered less serious burns to other parts of their bodies.
The tragedy occurred around 6pm on Sunday when the motor yacht was in an area known as the Mahon Canal
Rescuers initially planned to tow the 40-foot boat to Mahon harbor so firefighters could tackle the blaze with more advanced equipment. But the Coast Guard ultimately decided to take it further out to sea to minimize the risk of explosion before it sank
Five days earlier, a British holidaymaker was one of three people injured when a boat exploded at a marina in Cabo Roig near Torrevieja on the Costa Blanca.
The 37-year-old was rushed to Torrevieja hospital along with a 31-year-old Lithuanian woman after suffering facial burns.
A third person, a Spanish man aged 34, was airlifted to a hospital in Valencia after suffering serious burns.
Police later described the incident as an accident, but said at the time they were still investigating.
Footage showed concerned Good Samaritans rushing to the scene of the explosion after seeing a ball of flames rising into the sky.
The unnamed Spanish man, the most seriously injured of the three victims, was described locally as a workman who was cleaning the ship.
He suffered severe burns to the lower half of his body.