France expressed fear today that an oil slick that has devastated the coastline of northwestern Spain over the past week, is heading towards its own shores.
"I'm worried - everything I see today shows that the risks are not inexistent," French Environment Minister Rosylune Bachelot said after flying over Spain's Galician coast and speaking with Spanish officials.
France's concern has been growing because of weather forecasts showing that two big slicks were being pushed towards land by waves and wind.
If the slicks do not hit the Spanish coast in the next four or five days, they will likely continue northeast towards France's Atlantic beaches.
France, Belgium, Britain, Germany and The Netherlands have all sent vessels to Spanish waters to contain and pump the slicks floating off-shore, but operations were suspended today because of bad weather.
A three-man French submarine was also on its way to explore the wreck of the oil tanker Prestige, whose sinking 200 kilometres off Spain last Tuesday caused the disaster.
It will try to determine whether the 60,000 tonnes of oil that went down with the tanker remain in its broken hull, or whether further leaks were likely.
AFP