Crippled oil tanker in danger of splitting in two

The salvage company attempting to tow the vessel away from land said the 44,000 ton Prestige could split in two if weather conditions worsen.

>“There is damage to the side plating. It has a big hole,” Lars Walder, a spokesman for SMIT, a Dutch salvage company now handling the tanker.

“If the weather gets worse today, as is forecast, it faces a real danger of splitting.”