Crane lifts last Tricolor pieces

Giant floating cranes are lifting the last four pieces of the ship

Giant floating cranes are being used to raise the remaining sections of a freight ship which sank in the English Channel last year to the surface.

The 190 metre-long Tricolor has been a major obstacle to shipping in the Channel since it sank about 30 miles off Kent in December.

A salvage team has spent nearly three months carving the ship, which was carrying nearly 3,000 luxury cars when it sank, into nine sections.

The eighth and final cut was completed on Friday, leaving four huge pieces of the vessel submerged at the site of the wreck.

'Like cheese'

Work to lift the remaining sections using two floating cranes was beginning on Saturday.

Over the next two weeks they will be lifted to a waiting barge and shipped, one or two at a time, to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.

A special cutting cable was been used to slice the freighter "like cheese", in a salvage operation costing an estimated £25m.

The first five sections of the ship, which sank after colliding with the container ship Kariba, have already been taken ashore.

The stern, weighing 3,000 tons, was the first section to be raised

Dutch and Belgian salvage crews, working under the name Combinatie Salvage Tricolor, had hoped to complete the project in September but experienced a number of problems.

A spokesman said: "In less than three months the enormous vessel has been cut into nine pieces.

"Never before has an operation like this been done on such a scale.

"The salvage team looks back on a successful operation, although the team had to overcome several technical problems and some unfavourable weather conditions."

The final stages of the operation may be hampered by the deterioration of the remaining sections, which have corroded and may fall apart as they are lifted.

The salvage team has already had to cope with a leakage of about 2,000 litres of oil from the Norwegian-owned ship, which was carrying BMWs, Saabs and Volvos.