Madrid Large quantities of heavy fuel oil spilled into the sea from a freighter grounded off Gibraltar on Thursday. The 178-metre-long ship collided with a liquefied gas tanker this week. The fuel had leaked from two ventilators for the storage tank of the bulk carrier OS 35, the Gibraltar Chronicle newspaper reported, citing the harbour master of the British overseas territory at the southern tip of Spain. Photographs showed an oil slick several hundred metres long spreading around the ship, beyond the floating oil barriers that have been deployed. A second oil barrier has been placed directly in front of Catalan Bay beach on the eastern side of the Rock. Authorities feared that oil would come ashore in Gibraltar and the coast of neighbouring Spain. Attempts to pump out the 215 tons of heavy fuel oil, 250 tonnes of diesel and 27 tonnes of lubricating oil on board the vessel has not yet been successful, according to the Gibraltar government. In addition, the salvage of the ship has become even more complicated and will probably take weeks. (DPA)
