Divers to survey Channel wreck

An inquiry has been launched into the sinking

A salvage team is preparing to send divers down to the sunken car carrier in the English Channel on Sunday.

A spokesman for the Dutch salvage company Smit Tak told BBC News Online that a team had been at the scene of the wreck overnight but had been hampered by bad weather conditions and a high tide.

The ship is not leaking any of its bunker oil - just a little bit of oil maybe from the engines. That is good news

Lars Walder, salvage company spokesman

He said none of the ship's estimated 2,000 tons of oil was leaking into the sea.

The 55,000-ton Tricolor - carrying nearly 3,000 luxury cars - capsized and sank in the early hours of Saturday after a collision with a cargo freighter about 30 miles (48km) east of Ramsgate, Kent.

No-one was injured.

Smit Tak spokesman Lars Walder said the salvage team included three divers who they hoped would carry out a survey of the ship later on Sunday.

"The ship is not leaking any of its bunker oil - just a little bit of oil maybe from the engines. That is good news."

He said they hoped to mobilise another ship on Monday which could - if conditions permitted - pump the oil from the ship.

Mr Walder said the method of removing the ship had still to be decided by the owners and insurers. It could be refloated or lifted by floating cranes.

The Norwegian-registered Tricolor had been travelling from Zeebrugge, Belgium, to Southampton with its multi-million pound cargo of vehicles, including BMWs, Volvos and Saabs, and 77 containers.

The 20,000-ton Bahamas-registered freighter Kariba was badly damaged in the collision but limped back to port in Antwerp, Belgium.

British coastguard Lee Drew said: "The wreck must really go as soon as possible, because the Dover Straits is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world - and this is the actual crossroads where ships come from and to the European ports."

The value of the cargo was put at £30m, though the cars would have fetched double that at retail prices, motor industry experts say.

The Tricolor collided with the container ship Kariba

The estimated value of the Tricolor itself is about £25m.

Per Ronnevigsaid, spokesman for the Tricolor's owners Wilhelmsen Lines, said the ship and cargo owners would work with the insurers.

But he said it was likely the cars would probably have to be written off because the ship had capsized as it sank.

Warship in area

"All the cars are probably lying in pieces down there," he said.

Dover Coastguard said a Belgian warship, the Wandelaar, was in the area helping French coastguards.

The Tricolor was initially only partly submerged because of a low tide but later disappeared from view.

An inquiry will be launched by the French authorities into the cause of the accident.