Ship carrying 2,857 cars burns off Dutch coast

A fire is still blazing on a ship off the Dutch coast with 2,857 vehicles on board since Tuesday, killing one person and injuring several others.

The 199-metre Panama-registered Fremantle Highway was en route from Germany to Egypt.

Rescue ships sprayed water onto the burning boat to cool it down, but using too much water risked its sinking, the Dutch coastguard said. A salvage vessel hooked on to stop it drifting.

A coastguard spokesperson explained that the fire began near an electric car. The ship was carrying 2,857 cars from various manufactures, 25 of which were electric vehicles. Mercedes-Benz said that it had about 350 cars on board. The incident forced Lamborghini to restart Aventador production to replace the destroyed supercars.

In the aftermath of the Felicity Ace disaster in 2022, when a cargo ship carrying 4,000 cars burnt out and sank two weeks later, several shipping companies announced a ban on the transport of EVs.

Norwegian ferry company Havila Kystruten has also banned electric vehicles from its ships.