Nearly £17billion pounds have been wiped off BP shares as an oil spill that is threatening to eclipse the Exxon Valdez disaster spread out of control and started washing ashore along America's Gulf Coast early today.
Fishermen rushed to scoop up shrimp and crews spread floating barriers around marshes in a desperate attempt to stave off an environmental disaster.
BP was also facing financial disaster as the company lost £16.9billion in market value and U.S. President Barack Obama announced they will foot the bill for the clean-up.
The company is currently bleeding £4million a day as the crisis spreads out of control.
No way to stop it: Rough winds and waves push against an oil boom set up in a flimsy effort to protect the Louisiana coast yesterday
Impending danger: A Greenpeace image taken yesterday shows birds flying over the oil on the waters near Breton Sound Island in the Gulf of Mexico
Now American shrimpers in Louisiana and Alabama have filed class-action lawsuits against BP and owners of the drilling platform in a move that could open the floodgates.
The company is facing further financial pain after the White House said it would foot the bill for the clean-up. The final tab could run into the billions.
But its financial troubles pale in comparison to the environmental - and economic - disaster threatening the U.S. coast from the spill that threatens to overtake the Exxon Valdez disaster.
By Mail Foreign Service
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