125 tonnes a day leak from sunken tanker

Up to 125 tonnes of fuel oil are leaking from the sunken tanker Prestige every day, threatening further damage to the devastated coastline of northwestern Spain, officials said yesterday.

Foul sludge is oozing from nine cracks in the bow and five cracks in the stern of the Prestige and is taking about a day to reach the surface of the Atlantic, Deputy Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told reporters in the city of La Coruna.

"When it comes to the flow, estimates are that there are some 80 tonnes per day leaking from the bow and around 45 tonnes from the stern. We are talking about 120 to 125 tonnes per day," Rajoy said. "It is moving upwards and takes about a day to reach the surface."

A government oceanographer said the fuel would almost certainly move toward land and that it posed a danger unless cleanup ships were able to suction it out of the water.

The Prestige, laden with fuel oil, snapped in two and sank on November 19, leaving a series of slicks in its wake which have ravaged wildlife in Spain's prime fishing region, Galicia. The government is now calling it the country's worst ever environmental disaster after minimising its impact in the first few weeks - a stance that brought wide criticism.