London, May 23
A Norwegian man had a narrow escape as a huge container ship ran aground onto his garden, missing his bedroom where he was sleeping by scant metres, reports said on Friday.
The incident occurred in Byneset, near Trondheim city, and Johan Helberg was asleep throughout the arrival of his unexpected visitor - the 135-metre, Cypriot-flagged cargo ship, the NCL Salten.
Helberg only woke to find the ship when his neighbour, who had witnessed the ship heading for the shore, rushed to his house to alert him, reported.
"The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don't like to open," Helberg told Norwegian television channel.
He said that he went to the window and "was quite astonished to see a big ship, adding that he had to bend his neck to see its top.
Five metres further south and it would have entered the bedroom, and "that wouldn't have been particularly pleasant", he said.
"I didn't hear anything," Helbe told the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, adding that he was told that there had been a loud noise.
Helberg's neighbour, Jostein Jorgensen, said he was woken by the sound of the ship as it headed at full speed towards land - and Helberg's house.
"I was sure that he was already outside, but no, there was no sign of life. I rang the doorbell many times... it was only when I called him on the phone that I managed to contact him," Jorgensen told television channel.