PARIS - A cargo ship suspected of deliberately dumping oil off the west coast of France obeyed an order to sail to the port of Brest late on Monday after ignoring a previous instruction, French maritime authorities said.

The Matterhorn, a 115-meter-long (377 ft) refrigerated cargo ship registered in Liberia, was spotted by a French customs plane on Monday morning with a trail of oil in its wake 22 km (14 miles) long by 200 meters wide.

The ship was sailing from Kaliningrad in Russia to the Canaries, Spanish islands off the coast of West Africa. French authorities did not specify what the ship was carrying or why it could be dumping oil.

The Matterhorn ignored a first order to change course and sail to Brest, prompting the French navy to send out a helicopter from its La Motte-Picquet frigate to fly over the vessel and repeat the order.

A spokesman for maritime authorities in Brest said the ship had obeyed the second order and was now sailing toward the western port, where it was expected to arrive on Tuesday morning.

(From: Reuters)

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