A FREIGHTER seized in Greece with more than 600 tons of explosives on board was detained in the North-East last year.

The Sea Runner was impounded at Seaham Harbour, County Durham, in August by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency after being judged unsafe.

It stayed there until March, running up docking costs with agent Anglo Shipping, while its ten-man international crew were stranded in the town without being paid. The Cambodian-registered "rust-bucket" was sold at auction for £22,000.

It was bought and renamed the Baltic Sky under the colours of the Indian Ocean state of Comoros, which advertises itself as an Islamic flag of convenience.

The current owner is listed as Alpha Shipping Incorporated, based in the tiny Pacific Ocean nation of Marshall Islands, where it is reportedly possible to register a company online with a credit card number.

Industry experts said the ship's managing company, Unithorn Limited, based in Sligo, Ireland, is believed to point towards the real owners - an Irish family linked to a string of shipping firms.

Greece's merchant marine minister, Giorgos Anomeritis, described the ship as a floating "atomic bomb" after 680 tons of ammonium nitrate-based explosives was found on board.

The ship's documents said it was bound for a company in Sudan, but the vessel stayed at sea for nearly six weeks as international authorities grew suspicious.

The seven crew members face charges of entering Greek waters without announcing the hazardous cargo.

The probe into the ship has not ruled out possible terrorist links.

A spokesman for the Seaham Harbour Dock Company said: "The Sea Runner had timber in it when it came to us.

"We did not have a great deal to do with it. We have never heard or seen anything of it since it left us. It was empty when it left."