West Sussex goes bananas: Ship loses fruit cargo at sea; search crews hunt missing boxes

A major clean-up was underway in southern England on Tuesday after fruit-filled cargo containers fell from a ship and sent bananas spilling across the West Sussex shoreline.Sixteen containers were lost at sea on Saturday, the UK coastguard said.

Eight held bananas, two contained plantains and one carried avocados. Since the incident, hundreds of rotting bananas destined for Tesco supermarkets have washed up on pebbled beaches, leading officials to warn people to avoid affected areas.Damaged containers later came ashore in Selsey, where volunteers gathered scattered bananas into garbage bags as part of the clean-up effort.“A major clean-up operation is underway following several shipping containers washing up on the West Sussex shoreline,” the local council said in a statement Tuesday.The coastguard said it had deployed a helicopter and aircraft on Monday to search for five remaining containers still unaccounted for. Authorities also urged the public not to help themselves to any of the fruit.