Laurence Dollimore
THIS is the moment a super yacht owned by a poker player burst into flames in front of stunned beachgoers in the waters off the Balearic Islands on Saturday.
The inferno began in the stern of the 27-metre vessel at around 6pm, while it was anchored in the area of Cavall d’en Borras, in Formentera.
In footage shared on TikTok, huge plumes of smoke can be seen billowing from the boat, which was docked in front of the popular Beso Beach and Tiburon restaurant.
The Consell de Formentera (city council) has reported that the vessel belonged to professional poker player Diego Gomez Gonzalez, aka ‘The Lion’.
The 34-year-old, from Madrid, earned his nickname after attending the final table of the 2012 European Poker Tour in Prague in a full-body lion costume.
Some 17 people who were on board, consisting of five crew members and a dozen passengers, managed to escape without injury, reports local newspaper Periodico de Ibiza.
The flames were said to have spread throughout the yacht in a matter of minutes, turning it into a ball of fire that was visible from the neighbouring island of Ibiza.
The burning boat was towed out to sea by search and rescue boat, the Salvamar Acrux, on Saturday evening.
It comes almost exactly a year after a fire devastated the 45-metre long Aria SF, owned by the Italian business tycoon Paolo Scudieri.
Scudieri’s vessel was worth €25m and had recently been delivered before bursting into a fireball, sparking a clean up operation that lasted weeks.
