Feb 2014 Svendborg

The company says that 85 per cent of the containers were empty.

French environmentalists are to sue Danish shipping company Maersk for failing to tell officials of the loss of over 500 containers at sea during Storm Ulla, which hit western France earlier this month. Maersk only owned up on Wednesday to losing 517 containers from one of his boats on 14 February.

The shipping giant initially reported 70 containers had slipped into the sea off Brittany when the storm lashed the west of the country, causing giant waves offshore but on Wednesday it said that, in fact, the figure was 517.

Environment campaigners Robin des Bois on Friday announced that it was making a legal complaint against the company in the Brittany port of Brest, accusing it of “endangering lives” and pollution and “abandoning waste”.

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