Residents woken by ship’s early- morning horn ‘ false alarm’
Glaswegians who were woken up by a loud horn sound in the early hours of this morning can sleep at peace now, as the sound was identified as a ‘ false alarm’ emergency signal from a ship at Clydebank's fuel depot.
Just before 12: 30am on Friday, seven short blasts and one long blast from a ship’s horn were heard across Glasgow waking up many people across the city.
Star tled residents took to twitter in fear and confusion, with one user claiming that it was like ‘ the purge starting.’
After a coast guard rescue team investigated the scene, the sound was identified as a false ‘ general emergency’ marine alarm signal from a ship which was safely tied up at the fuel depot at Rothesay Dock.
The Greenock coastguard r escue t eam who r eceived ‘ a high number of repor t s’
about the incident t weeted: "We can confirm that a vessel in the Clydebank/ Erskine area had a malfunctioning distress system resulting in distress horns being activated around 00: 30.
"O u r o p e r a t i o n s c e n t r e have spoken with the vessel in question and can confirm she is safely alongside and in no distress.”
The ship was identified as the Sten Aurora, a chemical and oil products tanker currently sailing under the Norwegian f l ag and berthed i n Clydebank.
S arah Cameron, a volunteer with the medical transport charity Scotservs, who was present at the scene at the time of the alarm going off, was able to initially identify the ship.
Ms Cameron s ai d: “I was down at the riverside at the Golden Jubilee on the phone with t he coastguard while the alert was still going off.
"The coastguard confirmed there was only one ship operating on the river at that time - the Sten Aurora - but that it wasn’t responding to their hails.
“I f ound i t prett y quickly still berthed at the fuel depot on Old Dock Road.
“I spoke to the harbourmaster there who confirmed the vessel was fine, it was in the control of the Clydeport pilot and that it had been an accidental activation.
"S o g l a d e ve r y t hi ng was okay with t he Sten Aurora and glad with Scotservs I was in a position to help.”