GEN Ships collide..oil spill

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Oil spill after ships collide The oil spill is drifting towards the Danish coast March 29, 2001 Web posted at: 1101 GMT

BERLIN, Germany -- More than 1,000 tons of oil has spilled into the Baltic Sea after an oil tanker and a freighter collided, authorities say.

The collision happened overnight, about 23.5 kilometres (15 miles) northwest of the German coastal town of Darsser Ort, in international waters.

Both the tanker, registered in the Marshall Islands, and the Cypriot sugar freighter remained afloat, and the leak from the tanker -- which was carrying 33,000 tons of oil -- was stemmed.

The wind was blowing the oil toward the southern Danish islands of Falster and Moen, said Falk Meier, head of the German coastguard in Stralsund.

AUDIO Danish Navy Commander Carsten Bryiup: The tanker was fully loaded

497kb/46secs. AIFF or WAV sound Commander Carsten Bryiup of the Danish Navy told CNN the oil would probably reach the south Danish coast later on Thursday.

"It will not evaporate because it is heavy oil," Bryiup said. He said the spill was "quite severe."

He said the tanker was fully loaded, but suffered damage to only one tank. There were no injuries in the collision.

The Danish Naval Command, SOK, estimated that the oil leak was the biggest ever seen in Denmark.

Commander Mich Nielsen said: "I can't think of a leak of this size. The oil is so thick, that it won't evaporate before it reaches the coast. When it does, the situation will be very serious."

The first of two Danish ships, Gunnar Thorsen, is expected to arrive at the scene in the early afternoon.

The captain of Gunnar Thorsen will co-ordinate the clean-up effort.

One other Danish ship, one German and one Swedish ship with oil containment equipment were also heading for the scene. Gale force winds were expected to make the anti-pollution operation difficult. The tanker was en route to Gothenburg in Sweden carrying a cargo from Estonia.

Danish coastguards said the oil had broken up into several large slicks.

"We are preparing to prevent oil pollution hitting the Danish coast," a spokesman said.

German officials said the tanker was not in danger of sinking.

"It has been stabilised," said a spokeswoman for the environment ministry in Germany's northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

The collision ripped a 20-metre hole in one of the tanks of the double-hulled vessel, built last year.

The freighter, the Cypriot-flagged Tern, was also still seaworthy. It was carrying a cargo of sugar from Cuba to Latvia. Bryiup said the cargo ship suffered only "very small damage."

CNN Denmark, the Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2001


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