French Colonial Ship Raised in Vietnam

HANOI, March 9, 2006 - A Vietnamese company has raised a small French military vessel sunk during the anti-colonial struggle 60 years ago in the southern Mekong Delta and plans to use for scrap metal, officials said Thursday.

"A private company was involved in taking the ship out of water," said a senior military officer in Long An province who asked not to be named. "It is a small French ship sunken by Vietnamese troops during the war."

The 25-metre (82-foot) ship sunk in 1946 was raised Monday from the Tien River near My Luong, about 300 kilometres (180 miles) southwest of Ho Chi Minh City, said Nguyen Van Tam, a Cho Moi district people's committee official.

The senior military official told AFP the Vietnamese armed forces had taken no part in the salvage operation.

"The private company has asked for permission from the local government, and it received approval to take the ship out of water for scrap metal," he said.

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