Oil slick from cargo ship off Gibraltar reaches shore / Photo: JORGE GUERRERO - AFP
-
Samsung logs record quarterly profits despite investor AI jitters
-
Microsoft beats expectations fueled by Azure cloud business
-
Shares in Google owner Alphabet plummet on profit miss, ad slowdown
-
Shares in Google owner Alphabet sink on profit miss, ad slowdown
-
US Fed holds interest rates steady despite 'too high' inflation
-
Pioneering US labor leader Dolores Huerta dies at 96
-
Airbus aims for record deliveries despite disappointing quarter
-
US Fed holds interest rates steady despite surging inflation
-
Real Madrid, La Liga apology over Mbappe shows power of Chinese market
-
US labor leader Dolores Huerta dead: family
-
'Cruise for life' strands passengers in Cambodia as operator goes bust
-
French firm Safran helps build aircraft wings of the future in UK factory
-
Canada hikes rates to contain oil price surge caused by Iran war
-
World Bank warns of worsening food insecurity as commodity prices soar
-
Nintendo producer 'all nervous' as Zelda classic remake hits shelves
-
Billionaire Ambani's Jio soars in market debut after India's biggest IPO
-
Three killed by storm in southern India
-
AI chip giant SK hynix posts seven-fold surge in quarterly operating profit
-
Two hundred 'Cruise for life' passengers stranded in Cambodia
-
S.African activists push back on data centre rush
-
Billionaire Ambani's Jio jumps 21% in market debut after record India IPO
Oil slick from cargo ship off Gibraltar reaches shore
Small amounts of oil from a bulk carrier that collided with a gas tanker off Gibraltar has reached the shoreline of the British territory and neighbouring Spain, local officials said Friday.
The head of Gibraltar's government, Fabian Picardo, told Spanish news radio Cadena Ser that a slick from the stricken vessel had reached "parts of the coast of Gibraltar."
"But it was a small slick, we don't want there to be any slick, but it was small," he added.
Crews have been deployed to "begin the clean-up of oil from the shoreline," the government of Gibraltar said in a statement.
Gibraltar's department of environment has received reports "of small numbers of oiled birds," it added.
Meanwhile the mayor of the Spanish town of La Linea de la Concepcion which borders Gibraltar said an oil slick from the carrier had reached its beach, forcing its closure.
"What has arrived is a slick which, frankly, is worrying but we are not talking about a tragedy," Juan Franco told local reporters.
The carrier -- the OS 35 -- has been beached off Gibraltar since the two vessels collided late on Monday off the territory located on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula.
The captain of the damaged ship was detained for questioning on Thursday for allegedly not obeying Gibraltar port orders initially after the collision.
No one was injured in the accident.
Booms were placed around the stricken cargo ship but some oil still managed to escape the floating barriers.
Gibraltar officials said Friday that all of the diesel on the ship had been removed, and the priority now was the removal of the heavy fuel oil that is still on board.
Divers on Thursday sealed two tank vents that leaked fuel from the bulk carrier and the amount of oil that is leaking is "significantly reduced", the government of Gibraltar statement said.
Gibraltar, measuring just 6.8 square kilometres (2.6 square miles), overlooks the only entrance to the Mediterranean from the Atlantic Ocean, putting it on the key shipping route to the Middle East.
Its strategic location and low tax rates have helped turn it into one of the world's busiest ports for ships to refuel.
Greenpeace said oil spills will "continue to be a threat" in the Strait of Gibraltar as long as it continues to be "the biggest 'low cost' fuel station in southern Europe."
H.Müller--CPN