Cargo ship runs aground on Cornish beach

A 9,000-tonne cargo ship has ran aground on a Cornish beach.

The container vessel Karin Schepers was en route to Rotterdam from Cork in the Republic of Ireland when it ran aground on Cape Cornwall, about four miles north of Land's End.

The Coastguard tug Anglian Princess, two local lifeboats and a rescue helicopter from RNAS Culdrose were also scrambled.

The captain of the ship, which has a crew of 13 and is registered in Antigua-Berbuda, later managed to re-float it undamaged on the rising tide.

The vessel continued on its journey to the Netherlands.

It is the second time in less than three years that the ship has run aground.

On March 22 2009, it ran aground in a shallow part of the Baltic Sea between Denmark and Sweden and had to be pulled free by tugs.

PA