"The fire has already been localised. The worst is behind us. The fire is dying down," a duty officer for the Transport Ministry's river department told Reuters. But there was no word on how badly the river had been polluted by oil that started to leak from the vessel in large quantities early on Sunday, creating a 15-metre (50-foot) wide slick that officials then said was drifting down the river. The fire broke out on Saturday after an explosion on the privately owned tanker which was carrying 2,000 tonnes of light crude. One crew member was killed by the blast that occurred while the tanker was near the town of Sizran, about 700 km (440 miles) east of Moscow. The ministry official said on Monday that the Volga's width had allowed river traffic to continue operating throughout the fire. Ecologists expressed fears over the weekend that the oil leak would threaten plant, fish and animal life on the river. Natalia Oleferenko, an expert working for the environmental pressure group Greenpeace in Moscow, said: "This is definitely going to harm the ecology of the region." P.I.N./Reuters