FRANCE SEIZES SECOND GREENPEACE VESSEL RAINBOW WARRIOR COMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT SMASHED

Moruroa, South Pacific 2330pm BST-- French commandos have boarded peace flotilla support vessel MV GREENPEACE in international waters off Moruroa as France delayed its first nuclear test.

New information from the Rainbow Warrior confirms that the ship's radio and satellite communications equipment was sledge-hammered and radio room cables cut as some 19 French commandos stormed the Greenpeace ship earlier today.

"The radio room has been ransacked by French commandos -- they've been right over the place," radio operator Tim Gorter said using a hidden satellite phone in the first contact with the Rainbow Warrior crew since their arrest.

Rainbow Warrior captain Jon Castle is still inside the ship's crows nest on the mast. Most of the ship's crew are being held on the deck while commandos await a tow vessel. It is believed that the journalists aboard are being taken to Tahiti.

Two Greenpeace divers, who positioned themselves under the test monitoring platform within the Moruroa lagoon, were arrested before the MV Greenpeace boarding. They are American Bill Mosca and Austrian Heinz Smital. No contact has been made with either since their arrest.

The MV Greenpeace, a Dutch-flagged vessel carrying a New Zealand- registered helicopter was boarded outside the 12-mile exclusion zone in international waters. Communications with the vessel were severed during the boarding.

"France has not only boarded the MV Greenpeace in international waters but it has also tried to silence the Rainbow Warrior," said Greenpeace campaigner Thomas Schultz in Tahiti. "This can only mean it intends to hide its nuclear tests -- from people opposed to nuclear testing worldwide as well as from their own citizens."

For more information, contact: Thomas Schultz, Greenpeace International, Tahiti: +689 770613; Jean McSorley, Greenpeace New Zealand, ++649 377 6128; or Greenpeace Communications: +44 171 833 0600

Note to Editor:

Greenpeace Executive Director Steve D'Esposito has issued a plea for all protests taking place in the event of French testing to be peaceful. For a copy of the statement, please contact the numbers above.