A Norwegian man has spoken of the “unreal” moment he woke up to discover that a 135-metre container ship had crashed into his front garden.
The cargo vessel, the NCL Salten, had run aground just before 5am on Thursday after entering the Trondheim fjord on its way to the western town of Orkanger.
An astonished neighbour watched as the ship, which was travelling at about 16 knots (approximately 30km/h), headed straight for the shore into Johan Helberg’s garden, narrowly missing his house.
Helberg, who lives in Byneset, near Trondheim, awoke to his neighbour ringing his doorbell. He looked out of his window to see the ship’s bow.
“I went to the window and was quite astonished to see a big ship,” Helberg told the Guardian. “I had to bend my neck to see the top of it. It was so unreal.”
There were 16 crew members, among them Norwegians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians and Russians, on board the Cyprus-registered ship. There were no reports of injuries or oil spills. Police are investigating the incident and have identified one suspect on board the boat.
“Normally ships turn left or right into the fjord. But this went straight ahead,” Helberg, who has lived in the house for 25 years, added. “It was very close to the house.”
Per Christian Stokke, a spokesperson for Trøndelag police district, told NRK: “There is one person on board the boat who has been identified as a suspect.”
Police have interviewed the crew and are working on several theories, including technical failure and human error.
The shipping company, North Sea Container Line (NCL), said the shipmate had been named a suspect but that it was a routine police procedure.
NCL’s chief executive, Bente Hetland, said there was “no reason to believe this was intentional”.
“Incidents like this should not happen, and we have started an investigation into the causes. Today, we are relieved that there were no injuries, and our main focus is on the people near the ship and our crew,” he added.
The ship remained stuck aground on Thursday after the first attempt to remove it was unsuccessful. They planned to try again in the evening during high tide.
