75 passengers had to be evacuated after the ship Marco Polo ran aground outside Blekinge.
The oil spill is worse than first thought – and now the Coast Guard is gathering forces to fight the spill.
– The distance between the first leak and the last grounding is approximately three nautical miles, says preliminary investigation leader Jonatan Örn to TV4 Nyheterna.
During Sunday morning, TT-Line’s passenger ferry Marco Polo ran aground on the coast of Blekinge. The ferry was on its way from Trelleborg to Karlshamn and there were 75 passengers on board.
All passengers had to be evacuated from the ship. No one is said to have been injured.
Gathering power in southern Sweden
Later in the morning, the Coast Guard announced that oil was leaking from the ship. And the release turned out to be much larger than first thought.
The authority has therefore decided to mobilize personnel and units from all over southern Sweden to combat the spill. This is done, among other things, in collaboration with the Swedish Agency for Community Safety and Preparedness, MSB, and the local rescue service.
– What is happening now is that ships and crews are coming from large parts of Sweden to be able to gather strength tomorrow and start picking up the oil that leaked from the ship, says the Coast Guard’s preliminary investigation leader Jonatan Örn to TV4 Nyheterna.
The Coast Guard’s photos from the operation in Pukavik Bay.
The Coast Guard’s photos from the operation in Pukavik Bay.
Oil has leaked ashore
Due to fog on Sunday, it has been difficult for the Coast Guard to map exactly how big the oil spill is.
– We do not have a definitive estimate of the width as there has been fog at the site, but the distance between the first leak and the last grounding is approximately three nautical miles, says Örn.
He also states that the hypothesis is that the ship leaked oil even before it ran aground. Now the oil is drifting towards a half-mile long sensitive stretch of coast at Pukavik Bay.
– We know that it has come ashore in some places, but we don’t know the extent yet.
The County Administrative Board in Blekinge writes in a press release that the public is urged to avoid contact with the oil, both in the water and on land.