Cargo ship with 2,000 cars including Porsches and Audis sink off France coast

Paris, March 25: In what constitutes a major disaster, an Italian cargo ship carrying over 2,000 cars including superfast Porsches, sank 150 miles off the French coast in Atlantic Ocean last week following an outbreak of fire.

The ship, Grande America, was being operated by Italy's Grimaldi Lines and it was carrying the car shipment from Germany to Brazil via Morocco. Some of the cars that sank with the ship were 911 GT2 RS worth $2,972,000 (Rs 2 crore) each. All of the ship's 27 crew members on board though were rescued.

Among the other vehicles that the ship was carrying were Audi A3, A5, RS4, RS5 and Q7. The cause of the fire was not yet known and it was believed to have started on the car deck. France has launched on operation to clean up the oil spilled because of the capsize.

The Porsche cars that sank were reportedly the last batch of the high-end sports cars the production of which stopped in 2018. The German automobile maker though said that will make the cars especially for its four customers who did not get the delivery because of the mishap.

"We are sorry to inform you that, due to a fire, a Grimaldi group ship, that was transporting your vehicle, sank on March 12, 2019. Porsche has decided to resume the GT2 RS production in Germany, and your vehicle will be produced in April, with delivery scheduled for June," Daily Mail cited a letter that Porsche wrote to its customers.