KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian rescuers on Tuesday were searching for three missing crew members from an oil tanker that caught fire off the country’s southern coast.

Thick, black smoke engulfed the Gabon-flagged ship when the fire broke out on Monday during its journey from China to Singapore, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said in a statement.

Singaporean authorities identified the ship as the MT Pablo.

The fire was extinguished and the vessel was afloat with no danger to passing ships, a Malaysian official told AFP.

Two nearby ships and a maritime agency boat rescued 25 members of the MT Pablo’s crew, MMEA official Nurul Hizam Zakaria told local newspaper The Star.

“The search is now focused on finding the remaining three crew members,” he was quoted as saying by the paper.

The cause of the incident is under investigation, the MMEA said.