The British-owned ship Rubymar, which was attacked by Houthi fighters last month, sank in the Red Sea, Yemen’s government said on Saturday, warning of an “environmental disaster” caused by a cargo of fertiliser, Reuters reported.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack on the Rubymar, a British-registered and Lebanese-operated Belizean-flagged cargo ship carrying fuel fertilizer.

The crew was evacuated to safety and the ship was abandoned after being hit by two missiles. Tracking site TankerTrackers.com reported the fuel oil leak.

The ship left the United Arab Emirates and arrived in the Bulgarian city of Varna.

“The Rubymar sank on Friday evening when strong winds hit the territory,” the Yemeni government’s crisis department, which is in charge of the issue, said, saying it feared an “ecological disaster in Yemeni territorial waters and the Red Sea.”

According to UKMTO, a maritime security agency run by the British navy, the attacked ship was 35 nautical miles (65 kilometers) from the Yemeni port of Mokha (southwest).

The Houthis have attacked ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November, saying they were acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is waging a war against Hamas, in response to the Palestinian movement’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israeli soil.

In the face of these attacks, the United States, Israel’s main ally, created a multinational force in December to “protect” maritime traffic in these strategic waters.

Since January, sometimes with Britain’s help, they have carried out multiple strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, a country that has been fighting a 2014 war pitting the government against Iranian-backed rebels.