UAE's Khor Fakkan closes beach after oil spill detected

The UAE city of Khor Fakkan shut a beach on Monday after detecting an oil spill along its coastline, according to a notice posted by the municipal authorities on social media.

It did not provide further details about the closure of the Al Luluyah beach and did not say what caused the spill.

The UAE has shut down a number of beaches in recent weeks as part of efforts to contain oil leaking from tanker vessels offshore.

Since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran, attacks on commercial vessels in Gulf shipping lanes have driven up security risks for maritime traffic and heightened fears over the conflict's environmental fallout.

The UKMTO said on Saturday that a bulk carrier and military forces were involved in an incident in the Gulf of Oman, approximately 18 nautical miles east of Khor Fakkan.

It was unclear if the closure of the beach in the area was related to the incident, but UKMTO said at the time that the environmental impact was unknown.

The UAE relies heavily on desalination plants for most of its drinking water, and much of the economy — including ports and ⁠industrial facilities — ​is also located on the coast, making any contamination along its shoreline particularly sensitive.

-Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din and Jana Choukeir; Editing by Toby Chopra