A container that washed up between Arapya campsite and Oasis holiday village will be under 24-hour guard until investigators finish their work, Burgas regional governor Diko Dikov said. He added that a third container from the sunken Contship Jet is now also far from the Bulgarian coast.

On 2 November, a container from the ship, which sank off Varna a few days earlier, washed up on Nestinarka beach in Tsarevo. More containers and tanks later appeared on the shores of Burgas region. At least three of the containers are from the ship.

Earlier on this topic: Container from sunken ship washes up on beach in Tsarevo, eyewitnesses say it holds fir trees

A container seen off Sinemorets yesterday afternoon did not stop at the shore and kept floating. Dikov said there is no information about other containers, and border police are watching the whole coastline.

The Military Prosecutor's Office in Sofia is leading the investigation and has opened pre-trial proceedings. Military police are at the site for the first inspection. After that, the container will be loaded up and everything found inside will be taken out. The supervising prosecutor orders and directs all the work at the site.

Preliminary information cited by Dikov shows the container at Arapya does not hold dangerous cargo, but for now this is only an assumption. He said there are grounds to believe it is part of the cargo of Contship Jet, which is owned by a Liberian company. The container has been secured and is guarded, and all the responsible institutions have been told.

It is not clear when the container will be opened and pulled off the beach. The inspection and the weather will show how long it takes. If it rains or the weather turns bad, work will probably stop, the governor said. A tug cannot reach the spot for now because of the rain overnight.

Dikov is in touch with the Military Prosecutor's Office in Sofia, which will decide how to move the container. Options for the second tank are also being discussed, but because of the bad weather they will be looked at later. The investigation will not be hampered or halted, he said. Dikov said firmly that the tank is empty and poses no danger to nature, to residents of Tsarevo municipality or to other Bulgarians.

The weather worsened overnight, and Burgas region had heavy rain. In Tsarevo municipality alone, more than 120 litres of rain fell per square metre. Dikov described the situation as calm, with no one in distress or hurt and no emergencies. He is in constant contact with the duty officers in Tsarevo, and this morning he also spoke with Tsarevo mayor Marin Kirov.

Rivers, including the Cherna, have taken in the water, and the dams give no cause for concern. A few trees fell but have already been cleared, and no road sections have been closed.