http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2487739.stm

Tuesday, 19 November, 2002, 12:05 GMT
Stricken oil tanker 'sinking'

Oil has been washing up at beaches in Galicia
A stricken tanker which has been leaking oil off the
north-west coast of Spain has broken in two, officials
say.

Latest reports say the rear section of the tanker, the
Prestige, which is carrying at least 70,000 metric tons of
fuel oil, has sunk.

"The aft part of the ship
has sunk. The front part is
still floating but it will sink
... A lot of oil went down
with this (aft) part," a
spokesman for the Dutch
salvage company Smit
Salvage told Reuters from
Rotterdam.

The failure of the salvage
company to keep the
damaged tanker afloat
represents a huge
ecological disaster for the
region.

Click here to see a
map of the tanker's
location


They had struggled for six days to save the vessel,
which was about 250 kilometres (150 miles) from the
Spanish coast when it started to break up.

The Smit Salvage company spokesman, Lars Walder,
had earlier told Reuters that the stern and bow of the
vessel were still above water, but the middle was
sinking.

He said it was possible that some of the compartments
containing oil would go to the sea bed intact, lessening
the impact of the spill.

Since getting into difficulties in heavy seas nearly a
week ago, the Prestige has already spilled several
thousand tons of oil, much of it washing up on the coast
of Galicia.

Environmentalists say that if she spills her entire
77,000-ton load, the resulting damage could be double
that caused in the Exxon Valdez disaster off the coast
of Alaska in 1989 - one of the worst ever.

It is not clear how long it would take oil to reach the
European coast from the vessel's position.

The Prestige cracked its hull during a storm last
Wednesday, allowing oil to leak through a long gash in
its side.

Salvage efforts in recent days had been seriously
hampered by strong winds and rough seas.

Economic impact

The Spanish authorities have suspended fishing along
the 100-kilometre stretch of coastline from Roncudo to
Cape Tourinan, and financial compensation has been
promised to local fishermen.

Whole communities
depend on fishing in the
area, which is famous for
its shellfish, octopus and
crabs.

"This is a disaster for the
whole village. It will ruin
whole families," said
retired fisherman Jose
Carrapero.

As local residents pushed
ahead with an emergency
clean-up operation, other
European countries offered
assistance in response to a
Spanish appeal.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar - under fire
from environmentalists for what they consider to be a
timid response to the disaster - vowed to make whoever
was responsible pay for Spain's worst shipping disaster
in 10 years.

A diplomatic row erupted between Spain and Britain over
responsibility for the maritime safety of the stricken
tanker - a single-hulled vessel from a class of tanker
the EU plans to ban from its waters.

Britain has officially denied Spanish reports that the
Prestige was heading for Gibraltar when it ruptured on
Wednesday night.

Coast of death

On Monday, tugs pulled the crippled vessel towards
calmer, Portuguese, waters in the hope of transferring
the oil to another tanker.

However the Portuguese authorities indicated that the
Prestige would not be allowed to enter port there.

Late on Monday, Smit
Salvage said it had
managed to turn the
tanker so that its ruptured
hull no longer faced the
waves.

However, the vessel split in
two at 0800 GMT, a
spokeswoman in Galicia
said.

The captain of the vessel,
which was registered in the
Bahamas, has been
remanded in custody with
bail set at 3m euros
($3m).

Apostolos Mangouras is accused of failing to co-operate with salvage crews and
harming the environment.

Spain's north-west coastline is known as the "Coast of
Death" because of the many shipwrecks that have
occurred there.

The worst in recent years was in 1992, when the Greek
tanker Aegean Sea lost 74,000 tonnes of crude oil when
it ran aground near La Coruna.