Oil Slick Reached France

Soon France Atlantic coast could be swamped with oil from the sunken tanker Prestige as high winds tore up an oil slick at sea.

Blobs of oil have already washed up on Atlantic beaches near Bordeaux.

The French president, Jacques Chirac, has lambasted the "gangsters of the sea" he says are to blame for the spill and has rushed his prime minister and ecology minister to the south-west to hatch anti-pollution measures.