Norwegian bunker spill 'contained'

Police says World Heritage leak is under control following cruise ship incident on Sunday.

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Updated on 14 Jul 2009 07:23 GMT

The Norwegian police has said that a bunker spill from a cruise ship in the Unesco World Heritage-listed Geiranger Fjord has been contained following an incident on Sunday. The Bahamas-registered ship Spirit of Adventure [pictured] reportedly began discharging oil on Sunday morning. Clean-up crews proceeded to place containment booms around the area of the spill in order to absorb the oil and prevent what is believed to be diesel and heavy fuel oil from reaching the shore along the fjord. Authorities said they hoped to pump the fuel from the water before it spread any further. The police are understood to have boarded the ship in order to find out the cause of the incident. First reports have indicated that it may have been due to an equipment malfunction in the engine room. Spirit of Adventure left the fjord a little over two hours later than scheduled after receiving permission from the local commander to proceed to Bergen.