An abandoned tanker carrying more than one million barrels of crude oil could contaminate vast areas of the Red Sea in a severe, long-term environmental disaster if it breaks up or explodes, experts warn.

Salvagers have abandoned an effort to tow away a burning oil tanker in the Red Sea targeted by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. That's according to a European Union naval mission.

EU naval mission in the Red Sea says salvagers abandon attempt to tow away burning oil tanker targeted by Yemen rebels

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have released footage showing that they boarded and intentionally set explosives aboard a Greek-flagged tanker.

A suspected attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels targeted a ship in the Red Sea on Monday, authorities said. Two projectiles hit the vessel, and a third explosion occurred near the ship, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked two crude oil tankers - the Saudi-flagged Amjad and the Panama-flagged Blue Lagoon I - in the Red Sea on Monday, the U.S. military said, calling the assaults "reckless acts of terrorism".

An attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted an oil tanker in the Red Sea on Monday, authorities said, as a second ship nearby also came under fire. Both attacks were near where crews hope to salvage a tanker loaded with oil and still ablaze after another assault by the group.

The ship is suspected to be the Panama-flagged oil tanker Blue Lagoon I on route from a Russia port with Russian-origin cargo on board.