Britain:Police and coast guards sealed off part of southwest England's coast yesterday as dozens of containers, some packed with toxic and hazardous material, spilled from the listing deck of the broken-backed freighter Napoli.
Alarm about damage to the 152km (94 miles) of shoreline between Exmouth in Devon and Bournemouth in Dorset grew as an oil slick evaded booms around the stranded ship and worsening weather threatened salvage teams trying to drain her tanks.
More than 200 containers were beached yesterday evening or wallowed in the surf off Branscombe, whose narrow streets were closed to allow only emergency vehicles through.
Hundreds of people lined the east-Devon cliffs to watch the 62,000-tonne container ship listing at a 35-degree angle, with containers sliding across her decks into the sea.
Just under a 10th of the stricken ship's cargo of 2,394 containers has been washed overboard, most containing goods such as car spares and new motorbikes. However, a small number contain battery acid, pesticides and other potential menaces to marine life.
Several containers spilled open after smashing into rocks and debris was growing along the shore near Sidmouth last night.
This particular stretch of coast was named last year by the British government as one of 32 marine environmental high-risk areas, where shipping faces restrictions under measures recommended 13 years ago by Lord Donaldson after the Braertanker disaster off the Shetlands. Devon county council last week discussed the "shameful delay" in fully implementing Lord Donaldson's 1984 report.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said only three containers with dangerous goods had been lost by last night, but some of the Napoli's3,500 tonnes of heavy fuel oil had leaked ashore after the failure of a salvage operation.
The ship, which foundered off Cornwall during Thursday's storms and had all 26 crew evacuated by helicopters, had almost reached harbour under tow when serious structural failure forced tugs to ground her.
First reports of seabirds being fouled came last night and oil was forming a broken slick for some five miles between the ship and Beer Head.
- (Guardian service)