An oil tanker trapped amid sea ice off east China coast was pulled to the shore Thursday without casualties or oil leakage.

The tanker ran aground after hitting ice 14 nautical miles off the Weifang port in the eastern province of Shandong in the Bohai Sea at 10:43 a.m. Wednesday, said Wu Chunjun, a maritime official of Weifang City.

The ice pierced the bottom compartment of the 1,000-tonne oil tanker from the eastern province of Zhejiang.

An icebreaker arrived at the scene middy Thursday. The grounded tanker was pulled to the shore within seven hours. Nine crew members were evacuated to safety, Wu said.

The authorities would start discharging the oil from the ship at 2 a.m. Friday to rule out the danger of leakage, he said.

The worst sea ice in 30 years appeared from early January along the coastline of the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea as cold fronts pushed temperature to minus 10 degrees Celsius and below, according to the National Marine Forecasting Station.

Sea ice in Liaodong Bay expanded to 60 nautical miles off the coast on Tuesday from 38 nautical miles on Dec. 31, according to the station.

In the following week, the floating chunks of ice could extend up to 90 nautical miles off the coast of Bohai and 25 nautical miles in the northern Yellow Sea. The ice thickness could measure up to 40 cm, the station said.

The station has issued warnings against sea ice, saying it could threaten port infrastructure, transportation and maritime operations.