A majority of the crew taken to hospital after fire broke out on board the cargo ship Fremantle Highway have been released from hospital, shipping company Shoei Kisen Kaisha told news agency ANP on Monday.

There were 23 crew on board when the blaze started last week, and several jumped into the sea to escape. One person was killed “because of the smoke”.

Meanwhile, the ship has been towed to a new, temporary location, 16 kilometres north of the Wadden Sea islands of Ameland and Schiermonnikoog. The ship could be moved because the amount of smoke it was producing had gone down significantly, the company said.

The ship was moved to take it out of busy shipping lanes and to offer better protection if the weather should turn.

An electric car, now reported to be one of 498 on the ship instead of 25, may have been the cause of the fire, experts said, although an investigation has yet to confirm this. In total, the vessel had nearly 4,000 vehicles on board.