A helicopter airlifts crewmembers from the Spanish cargo ship Luno, which slammed into a dyke and split in two, injuring at least one sailor and raising concerns of a fuel leak, in Anglet, near the French port of Bayonne.
A Spanish cargo ship slammed into a dyke and split in two near the French port of Bayonne yesterday as wild weather lashed Europe’s Atlantic coasts.
The local mayor’s office said the boat, carrying 11 sailors, had crashed into the dyke amid heavy seas near the town of Anglet on its way to Bayonne in southwestern France.
The prefecture for the Pyrenees-Atlantiques region said it had suffered a “complete electrical breakdown”.
It said the sailors were evacuated by helicopter in a rescue operation made difficult by lashing winds of up to 110kph.
Officials said a fuel leak had been detected and an emergency plan known as Polmar had been activated to deal with maritime pollution.
The prefecture said one of the sailors suffered minor injuries.
It said the Luno cargo ship, 100m long, had been empty.
An AFP reporter at the scene said half of the boat was resting on the dyke while the other half was drifting towards the beach at Anglet – a favourite spot for surfers in France.
Local mayor Jean Espilondo questioned why the boat had been given authorisation to enter the port in bad weather.
“We know that the entry conditions for the port of Bayonne are very difficult,” he said.
Weather service Meteo France had earlier put nine regions on France’s northern and Atlantic coasts on alert for bad weather.
In Brittany some 25,000 people were without power on Tuesday after high winds brought by Atlantic storm Petra.