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Sea marshals to patrol cross channel ferries
Cross channel ferries will be regularly patrolled by armed French sea marshals as part of tighter security.
The checks will take place in international and French territorial waters, but talks are also taking place between France and Britain to enable patrols also to take place in British territorial waters.
The first exercise took place earlier this week on board Brittany Ferries’ vessel Mont St Michel travelling from Portsmouth to Caen.
Half way through the crossing, and around three hours before the ship’s scheduled arrival into France, a team of three French sea marshals were flown in by helicopter.
They then patrolled the bridge and passenger areas of the vessel.
Brittany Ferries said passengers were informed by announcements in English and French before the exercise took place.
"Access to outside decks was not allowed at the time of the helicopter’s arrival. The security crew travelled with passengers to France, where they left the ship on foot," said a spokesman for the ferry company.
He added: "Security exercises like this one on board Mont St Michel give Brittany Ferries an opportunity to practise its incident response in partnership with other agencies.
"Safety and security are our highest priority and we operate according to robust procedures set out in the ISPS (International Shipping and Port Security) Code, an international framework endorsed by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO)."
He said the exercise marks the beginning of regular patrols by armed French sea marshals on French flagged passenger ferries.
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Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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