Cargo ship spills 1500 tonnes of timber

A Russian-registered cargo ship has lost 1,500 tonnes of timber in rough seas off the Sussex coast.

It happened in a major English Channel shipping lane 14 miles off Newhaven, East Sussex, at 0815 GMT.

The vessel, which is being escorted to Portsmouth by a coastguard tug, is not thought to be at "imminent risk".

A Coastguard spokeswoman said the wood could be heading towards Dungeness in Kent, not the East Sussex coast at Newhaven as previously thought.

Aerial surveillance

She said: "We thought at first it was heading towards Brighton and Hastings to arrive there later today, but now it's looking to go round Dungeness.

"It may actually avoid the coastline entirely and go on up through the Dover Strait."

The 137m (450ft) vessel Sinegorsk, which has a 25-strong crew, was heading to Alexandria in Egypt from Oskarshamn in Sweden when the sawn timber was lost from the deck.

An aerial surveillance aircraft has been sent to survey the debris and to see whether the wood remains in secure bundles.