The Government of Morocco has requested on this Friday afternoon officially helps Spain to refloat its patrol boatstranded in the waters of Melilla for more than 30 hours, which is why the operation has been activated to request the intervention of specialized means that could arrive from Cádiz, Almería and Cartagena (Murcia), as reported by port sources in the Spanish city in North Africa.
As a result, the Government Delegation announced around 6:00 p.m. that “due to the situation of the Moroccan patrol boat stranded on the South Dock, the National Maritime Rescue Plan to proceed to its rescue.”
Since this Thursday, around 10:30 a.m., the Moroccan military and police vessel ran aground next to the South Dam of Melilla, the work to try to recover the patrol boat were being carried out by the Royal Moroccan Navy and two tugboats arrived from the neighboring country, but the work has so far been unsuccessful.
After 30 hours of the maritime incident, these port sources have stressed that the Moroccan authorities have requested Spanish collaboration given that the vessel, named El Kaced, has not only been recovered, but has even your situation has worsened because part of the boat is sunken, specifically “the stern part.” Before Morocco’s decision, lThe Port Authority of Melilla had already taken measures of prevention in case a spill occurs from the patrol boat and thereby avoid, if this were to occur, environmental damage to the Melilla coast.
“A leak in the hull”
As reported by port sources, the Port Authority has put a permanent guard with its Police on the South Damin case a spill occurs, and at that same moment give notice so that your environmental office applies emergency measures in this type of case. In fact, the president of the public body himself, Manuel Ángel Quevedo, has been following the rescue work of the patrol boat on Thursday and this Friday and the consequences if this operation is not possible.
This incident occurred shortly after the South Dam of Melilla, next to La Hípica beachlocated more than half a kilometer from the Moroccan port of Beni-Enzar. From that moment on, the port authorities are “on alert” in case the patrol boat finally ends up sinking and a spill occurs, in which case they activate the emergency measures established by the protocol for emergency situations of this type. They have asserted that the vessel “It has a leak in the hull and they have been running the bilge pump all day“to try to keep it from sinking.
According to these sources, the Moroccan patrol vessel left its base port in Nador on Thursday morning when The engines shut down, apparently “due to a breakdown”and the east wind pushed the boat against the submerged breakwater of the South Dike, in Melilla, at which time it ran aground.
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