US guard rescue listing ship crew

The ship is carrying a load of some 5,000 cars

The 23-strong crew of a cargo vessel that was badly listing off the coast of Alaska has been rescued by helicopter, the US Coast Guard says.

The crew was taken to Adak, one of the Aleutian Islands in the north Pacific.

The 654ft (196m) Singapore-flagged Cougar Ace was listing 80 degrees, taking on water and leaking fuel. The cause of the list remains unclear.

The vessel was carrying 4,800 cars from Japan to Vancouver in Canada and had left Japan on Saturday.

"Aside from one crew member with a broken leg who will be taken to Anchorage [in Alaska] for medical attention, there were no reported injuries," the guard said in a statement quoted by the AFP news agency.

The rescue operation involving the Coast Guard and Alaska Air National Guard was conducted in "very challenging weather", said Master Sgt Sal Provenzano of the Alaska Rescue Co-ordination Center.

There were 10ft (3m) waves hitting the ship.

Three helicopters hoisted the crew from the vessel's superstructure, where they gathered when it began listing. All members of the crew wore survival suits.

A merchant vessel was standing by in case the crew could not fit on the helicopters.

Fuel load

The ship is some 400km (240 miles) south of the Aleutian Islands.

It had made a distress call on Sunday night as it began listing. The crew did not know where the ship was taking water from.

A coast guard aircraft had dropped three life rafts, but the rough seas pushed them beneath the vessel.

The merchant vessel which was standing by during the rescue operation had been in the area and reached the Cougar Ace on Monday.

It tried, but failed, to rig a line to the ship to keep it from tilting further.

The Cougar Ace is reported to be carrying between 400 and 500 metric tons of fuel oil and 112 tons of diesel fuel.

Coast guard officials said they had seen a two-mile (3.2km) oil slick near the ship.