Great Barrier Reef ship refloated

A Malaysian cargo ship stranded for twelve days on the Great Barrier Reef off Australia has been pulled free by tugboats.

Concern has been expressed about the possible environmental impact both of the ship's cargo of chemicals, and the use of explosives to blast away some of the coral trapping the boat.

Australian radio said there was no immediate sign of pollution after the twenty-one-thousand-tonne vessel was refloated.

The Great Barrier Reef, extending almost two-thousand kilometres down Australia's north-east coast, is the world's biggest coral structure.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service