05 Jan 2019; DW: Shipping firm MSC is under criminal investigation after more than 270 cargo containers fell off one of its ships and washed ashore. Most of the containers, some holding hazardous material, have not been located.
Swiss shipping line MSC said on Saturday it will bear the "full costs" of cleaning up debris from a container spill that washed up on Dutch and German shores.
More than 270 containers, some of them carrying hazardous material, fell off one of the world's largest container ships, the MSC Zoe, in rough weather on Wednesday near the German island of Borkum in the North Sea.
"The MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company would like to assure authorities and members of the public in the Netherlands and Germany that the company will pay the full costs of the cleanup," the Geneva-based company said in a statement.
"MSC will also ensure that the beaches of the Dutch and German coastlines are surveyed until all debris related to this incident has been cleared," it said.
So far only 35 containers, holding car parts, refrigerators, flat-screen TV, toys and furniture, have been located, most of them on the Dutch islands of Terschelling, Ameland and Vlieland.
