Environmentalist groups Wednesday voiced concern over pollution after a tanker, carrying 10,000 tons of phosphoric acid, sunk in the English Channel following a collision with a Polish freighter, Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa) reported. The Ece, which is Turkish-owned but Marshall-Islands-flagged, sank early Wednesday near the site of the collision, off the Channel island of Guernsey and some 90 kilometres west of Cap de La Hague in northern France. Efforts to tow the vessel to the northern French port of Le Havre were abandoned late Tuesday. British coastguards said the Ece, which has a 5-metre hole below its waterline, sank in 70 metres of water. British and French coastguard experts have said there is no pollution threat as the phosphoric acid would dissolve in sea water. But David Santillo, a scientist at Greenpeace, said phosphoric acid was a "hazardous substance" and attempts should be made to recover it from the sunken tanker. "If there had been a major spill we could have been looking at more severe effects on the marine life locally, but with a slow dilution it shouldn't pose a long-term problem," Santillo agreed. --More 22 37 Local Time 19 37 GMT
