Wed 21 Dec 2005

TThe Danube river faces an ecological crisis after the sinking of the Slovak cargo ship Polana near the port of Rousse. The ship sank yesterday morning after fire broke out on Monday. There is a real danger of a fuel spill. The ship was carrying 45 tons of diesel fuel. The fuel is now located in the reservoir of the ship. Oil slicks appeared on the water surface yesterday. Rousse experts rejected reports by Romanian media that a kilometre-long oil spill had already formed on the river surface.
The fire which broke out in the machine department of Polana was extinguished with the help of emergency teams from Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine. One option for extinguishing the fire included scuttling the ship, but Romanian authorities rejected this as the ship was located on Romanian territory.
Yesterday morning, Polana sank by itself, its hull damaged by high temperatures, Novinar newspaper reported.