Argentinean rescuers demand to pay all their expenses

The Argentinean ice-breaker Almirante Irizar demands three and a half million dollars for rescuing the Russian scientific expedition on board the German ship Magdalena Oldendorf which is ice-bound near the Antarctic.

"The position of the ice-bound ship is very complicated," say the Argentinian sailors, though not officially so far.

The ice-breaker, which belongs to the Navy, is now in the port of Buenos Aires. It will need at least five days to be equipped and fuelled and another nine days to reach the place of the incident.

"The blocks of ice in that region are very big, and the rescue operation will be risky and very complicated," assert local experts.

In answer to the request of the insurance company responsible for the Magdalena, the following figures were named: forty thousand dollars a day for at least three months to rescue the passengers, the crew and the ship itself. The fuel for the ice-breaker (3.5 million litres of solar oil) will cost 3.5 million pesos (about one million dollars) alone.