Authorities brace as oil slick heads for France
Print Edition
French authorities are bracing for an oil slick that is creeping toward its southwest coast and should make landfall on Sunday or Monday.
The 10-kilometer-by-1-kilometer oil sheet was first spotted by a French naval aircraft on Wednesday afternoon, after a fire aboard an Italian cargo ship that sank on Tuesday 300 kilometers west of the town of La Rochelle.
In addition to 2,200 tons of heavy fuel the Grande America had on board, it was also transporting 2,000 cars and 365 shipping containers, 45 of which held dangerous materials, including 100 tons of hydrochloric acid and 70 tons of sulphuric acid.
鈥淭here is a risk, so we must do everything to reduce it and to reduce the impact of pollution of our coasts,鈥 environment minister Francois de Rugy told BFM news channel.
The 214-meter ship was sailing from Hamburg, Germany, to Casablanca, Morocco, when a fire broke out on Sunday.
All 27 people on board were safely evacuated before it sank.
French authorities aim to limit the impact of the spill by deploying four ships and preparing for a cleanup operation on land.
鈥(This shipwreck) is problematic,鈥 said Christian Buchet, director of the Center of Ocean Studies at the Catholic Institute of Paris, in an interview with RTL.
The cause of the fire is unknown. But it is believed to have broken out on the car deck before spreading to a container.
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