Damaged Baltic Sea ferry Marco Polo leaves Swedish waters French President Macron comes to Bern for a state visit

The ferry ‘Marco Polo’ that ran aground off the coast of the Swedish Baltic Sea has been towed towards Poland. The ship left the Swedish economic zone on Friday, the coast guard said. A Polish rescue ship accompanied them to the port of Gdansk. She is expected there on Saturday morning.

The “Marco Polo” was traveling between Trelleborg and Karlshamn on October 22 with 75 passengers on board when it hit the bottom, but continued its journey and ran aground again about five kilometers later. The passengers and part of the crew were able to leave the ship and oil leaked. The ship then became stuck about 120 kilometers northeast of Malmö and was taken to Karlshamn in early November. Two crew members were fined for shipping negligence.

Rescue manager Kalle Isaksson said about ten tonnes of spilled oil still need to be recovered. The province of Blekinge has reported the environmental damage to the police against shipping company TT-Line. After the accident, 150,000 liters of oil spilled into the sea and some of it ended up on land, the authority said. The cleanup will take months, but most likely not all the oil will be collected. Damage to animals, nature and the environment is therefore expected. (sda/dpa)