Police arrested the Greek captain of a stricken oil tanker Friday as fears grew that the ship carrying more than 70,000 tons of fuel oil could break up.
Captain Apostolos Mangouras was taken into custody after he and remaining crew aboard the Prestige were evacuated from the ship and flown to La Coruna, a northwestern port.
A government official said Mangouras was arrested on suspicion of disobeying authorities and harming the environment.
The 26-year-old ship got into trouble en route to the British colony of Gibraltar, puncturing a tank during a violent storm Wednesday. About 5,000 tons of oil had leaked out and created a 20-mile-long slick offshore.
Environmental group WWF said that if all the fuel oil leaked, it would be one of the largest oil spills in the world, about twice as big as the Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska in 1989.
