MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Audis, Porches and Lamborghinis adrift in the north Atlantic

Felicity Ace adrift with 4,000 super models

Some four thousand brand new models of Audis, Porches, and Lamborghinis are adrift in the North Atlantic, close to the Azores islands when the freighter carrying them caught fire and the crew had to be rescued.

The Panama-flagged Felicity Ace was transporting Volkswagen Group vehicles from Emden, Germany to Rhode Island in the US, a VW spokesperson said on Friday.

The vessel caught fire on Wednesday and Portuguese navy and choppers rescued the 22 crew members.

An internal email from Volkswagen US said the ship carried 3,965 vehicles of the VW, Porsche, Audi and Lamborghini brands.

A Porsche spokesperson confirmed nearly 1,100 Porsche vehicles were on board. Audi also said some of its cars were on the ship but did not state how many.

The Portuguese navy was keeping an eye on the burning ship.

A Dutch salvage company would examine the possibility of towing the ship to a port, according to the Portuguese news agency Lusa.