Danish coastguards said today that massive oil slicks which had threatened to pollute the Danish coast after a tanker collided with a freighter in the Baltic Sea were under control.
"We have the oil under control and the weather is on our side, unlike yesterday when conditions were stormy," a Danish coastguard spokesman said.
"If there has ever been any talk of a disaster, this has now been averted."
Around 1,900 tonnes of heavy oil is believed to have leaked out and is lying in the water between the Danish islands of Falster and Moen.
A minor slick has reached the small island of Bogoe, but the spokesman said that, as the oil was still in the water, the clean-up operation would be easier than if it had actually hit land.
The coastguards said they expected to have cleaned up all the oil by the end of the day.
The tanker was en route to Gothenburg, Sweden, with a cargo from Estonia, when it collided with the freighter, which was anchored off the north German port of Rostock.
Television pictures yesterday showed a huge gash, mainly above the waterline, on the tanker's starboard side.
Officials said oil was no longer leaking from the tanker, which was at anchor near the site of the collision and not in danger of sinking.
No crew members were hurt in the collision.
The freighter, the Cypriot-flagged Tern, was carrying a cargo of sugar from Cuba to Latvia.