Oil spill closes Riviera beaches

Cakes of fuel oil, apparently caused by a ship cleaning its tanks, have soiled the Mediterranean waters around several exclusive French Riviera beaches, forcing their closure.

Authorities called in navy helicopters and ships to investigate the source of the pollution and clean up the water on the trendy eastern end of the Cote d’Azur, near Monaco.

Menton and Roquebrune-Cap Martin, near the Italian border, were the coastal areas hardest hit by the pollution, ”surely coming from the cleaning of a boat’s fuel tanks,” the local prefecture said.

A helicopter spotted masses of fuel, including gluey cakes, floating in the Mediterranean about 10 miles south of Cap Martin, officials said.

France is still recovering from pollution on its western Atlantic coast, caused by the sinking of the Prestige oil tanker last November off the coast of Spain.