Spain seizes treasure hunting company vessel

SPANISH Civil Guards heightened a battle over a £250 million (€369m) treasure of gold and silver coins from a shipwreck when they seized a vessel belonging to a Florida-based company.

The Ocean Alert was seized yesterday, three miles off the south-eastern coast and taken to the nearby port of Algeciras to be searched, the Civil Guard said.

The Civil Guard acted on an order of a Spanish judge who in June instructed police to seize two vessels of Tampa’s Odyssey Marine Exploration if they left the British colony of Gibraltar and entered Spanish waters.