Storms force oil spill onto beaches

GUSTING winds and surging seas spread oil slicks to the major Spanish port of La Coruna as fishermen toiled in the dark to set up protective booms and meteorologists forecast more damaging storms for a region covered in sludge.

City officials laid floating barriers at a beach in north west Spain's Galicia region yesterday and called for help from a French oil-sucking skimmer boat to clear up oil that started leaking from the now-sunken tanker Prestige on November 13,

As 600 people up and down Galicia's "Coast of Death" spent another day shovelling sludge from the Prestige, which broke in two and sank on Tuesday off the coast of north west Spain, the regional government announced a 60 million aid package and set up a free phone number for people to volunteer with clean-up efforts.