`Ievoli Sun' sinks off French coast with toxic load

France feared an ecological disaster yesterday after an Italian ship carrying 6,000 tonnes of chemicals - two-thirds of them highly toxic - sank off the coast of Normandy in stormy weather.

The cargo of the Ievoli Sun, registered in Milan, was destined for the port of Bar in Montenegro, where it was to have been used to manufacture plastic.

French officials described 4,000 tonnes of styrene as highly toxic, corrosive and explosive. Surveillance aircraft monitored the site of the shipwreck late yesterday for signs of pollution. Styrene is not soluble in water. If it leaks from its containers, some will evaporate and the rest will float on the water in the form of flakes or an oily film. The other chemicals carried by the ship are less dangerous.

Attempts to remove the chemicals will be complicated by the fast-moving currents around the "Casquet ditch", where Britain stocked its nuclear waste for decades.

The ship sank prow first in 80 metres of water 3 km from the 171-metre-deep under-sea ravine.

The Ievoli Sun had sailed from Fawley, near Southampton, and launched distress signals from north of Brest early on Monday. Its 14 crew were removed by helicopter in heavy seas and a rescue ship, the Abeille Flandres, began towing it towards Cherbourg on Monday afternoon. "When we started towing, the first four compartments were full of water but eight others were dry," a spokesman for the French navy said. "It appears the partitions gave way and the others filled with water."

The ship sank 12 miles north-west of Alderney at 7.30 a.m. yesterday. The environmental group Greenpeace, fishermen and opposition politicians blamed Paris and the EU for failing to enact tighter security measures on shipping in the Channel after the oil tanker Erika sank nearby 10 months ago. The resulting oil slick destroyed the tourist trade in Brittany last summer and cost the Elf-Totalfina company hundreds of millions of francs.

"A year after the Erika catastrophe, nothing has changed," Greenpeace said. The group accused French authorities of deliberately trying to dump the Ievoli Sun in the Casquet ditch, a charge which the Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, angrily denied in the National Assembly.

Mr Jospin immediately dispatched his ministers of transport and the environment to Cherbourg. He said the government's first priority was to prevent a leak of the dangerous chemicals, and that it would address the question of maritime safety later. President Chirac expressed his "very great concern".

Mr Philippe de Villiers, the leader of a small, anti-European right-wing party and a regional official in north-west France, noted that "when the Erika sank, they said, `Don't worry, we'll take steps'. But no steps were taken - nothing at all. Neither on a national nor a European level . . . For the past year rotten boats, rubbish boats, have been sailing constantly off the coast of Normandy and our leaders have done nothing. Dignity demands that they resign. They are incompetent."

French fishermen, who paralysed ports with a protest against fuel prices at the end of August, were also angry. "It sank smack in the middle of the trawling route for everybody who fishes in the Channel," said Mr Daniel Lefevre, a fishermen's representative from Normandy. "It's a zone frequented by Bretons, Dutch, Belgians, English - everybody who works in this area, which is rich in fish. The fishermen are going to pay for yet another catastrophe that shouldn't have happened."

The Ievoli Sun was inspected by the Italian company Rina - the same firm that had certified the Erika. Rina was already under investigation by French magistrates on suspicion of ignoring poor maintenance on the Erika. The Ievoli Sun was only 11 years old but had been detained in several ports. Competition has forced shipping companies to reduce costs by one-third since 1994.