Oil worker in dramatic rescue

Reuters Reuters Reuters

An oil clean-up worker is rescued by co-workers in Dalian, China.

An oil clean-up worker is rescued by co-workers in Dalian, China.

An oil clean-up worker is rescued by co-workers in Dalian, China.

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A quick rescue prevented an oil spill clean-up operation going tragically wrong in the Chinese port of Dalian yesterday.

A worker swam out through the thick oil to save a colleague from drowning after the man got into trouble while trying to unblock an underwater pump, The Times newspaper reported.

The rescued man had been told to wade out into the sea to fix the pump that was siphoning off some of the 1500 tonnes of crude oil that gushed into the port after a fire on Friday.

A Greenpeace China photographer, there to take pictures of the slick, captured images of the rescue.

Greenpeace confirmed that the man had survived.

Crude oil started pouring into the Yellow Sea after a pipeline exploded. The government says the slick has spread across a 180-square-kilometre stretch of ocean off the shores of Dalian, once named China's most livable city.

China has been trying to keep the slick from reaching international waters.

- © Fairfax NZ News