Sunday July 9 19:45 GMT - (GP) Some 150 French Commandos surrounded and stormed the Rainbow Warrior earlier today. Commandos threw tear gas cannisters on board and doors onboard the ship were knocked down and windows smashed. Monsignor Gaillot, a French Roman Catholic bishop on board the ship, was removed by the French and taken away on an inflatable.
Communication with the ship were cut and no communications have taken place since the boarding. The safety and whereabouts of the boat's crew and the five journalists on board is still unknown.
The raid took place as the Rainbow Warrior entered the 12 mile exclusion zone around the Moruroa test site, where activists hoped to delay preparations for French nuclear tests underway at the site. The Rainbow Warrior came within 4 miles of the atoll's lagoon before being boarded according to the last phone contact with the ship's crew.
At 5 a.m. local time, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the bombing of the first Rainbow Warrior, the ship's namesake crossed the 12 mile test-zone limit established by the French.
Just prior to that, Greenpeace launched four small inflatables. At least one of the inflatables reached the lagoon inside Moruroa Atoll.
"Storming the ship and using tear gas is an outrage against peaceful protest and world opinion that these tests are unacceptable. Despite this act of blatant aggression Greenpeace is pledged to continue its non-violent campaign to stop the resumption of nuclear testing at Moruroa.
The people in the four inflatables were: Madaleen Habib (Australia) and Julien Prieur (France); Philip Pupuka (Solomon Islands) and Mimo Casa (Italy); Todd Thompson (New Zealand) and Letitia Rastoin (France); Richard Leney (UK) and Kate Lecci (New Zealand).
ENDS
Contact:
Blair Palese, Greenpeacee Communications London +44 171 833 0600
OR Adam Woolf; pager 0399 1133 x 787076
Photos available via PA, AP, Reuters, AFP.
Video available via WTN, Reuters, APTV.