A Chinese coal ship is stuck on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef leaking oil and is in danger of breaking apart.
The Shen Neng 1 is carrying 65,000 tonnes of coal to China and ran aground 70km off the east coast of Great Keppel Island tourist resort.
Aircraft flying over the ship have reported that there are patches of oil visible up to 4km away from the ship.
Captain Patrick Quirk, the MSQ general manager, said: “The continued leakage of oil is probably the best case we could expect.
“At one stage last night we thought the ship was close to breaking up. We are still very concerned about the ship.”
“We are now very worried we might see further oil discharged from this ship,” Ms Bligh said. Local emergency crews were on standby to clean any oil that reached mainland beaches, she added.
It has been reported that the vessel should not have been in the area where it ran aground.
