Could this Russian ghost ship infested with CANNIBAL RATS beach in Britain? Experts fear storms have driven abandoned cruise liner towards land after Canadian tow ship lost it a YEAR ago

Lyubov Orlova has been missing in the North Atlantic since last January

Experts fear high winds have driven it worryingly close to UK shoreline

Likely to have hundreds of diseased rats with only each other for food

Abandoned liner cut adrift while being towed to Dominican Republican

A ghost ship infested with hundreds of cannibalistic rats may end up beaching on Britain's coastline, experts have warned.

The abandoned Lyubov Orlova has been missing since it cut adrift while being towed from Canada nearly a year ago.

Coastguards fear the 40-year-old liner was driven across the North Atlantic by high winds and is now lurking worryingly close to the UK shoreline.

Searchers say there are likely to be hundreds, if not thousands, of disease-ridden rats on board with no source of food except each other.

Bound for Britain? The abandoned Lyubov Orlova may be bringing hundreds of disease-ridden cannibal rats to the UK after cutting adrift in the North Atlantic a year ago

Mystery of the missing liner: The ship was being towed from Newfoundland to the Dominican Republic in January last year when it cut adrift. Experts fear high winds have pushed it thousands of miles towards the UK

Based on signals from distress beacons thought to have been set off accidentally and an unconfirmed satellite image, it is believed the Soviet vessel could hit the West coast of Ireland, Scotland or the far southern tip of England.

Belgian-based searcher Pim de Rhoodes said: 'She is floating around there somewhere. There will be a lot of rats and they eat each other.'

A spokesman for the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: ‘We have received no reported sightings of the vessel since April, but we will respond accordingly.’



The 4,250-ton Lyubov Orlova - which was built to carry 110 passengers - was impounded in Newfoundland in 2010 after being deserted by her crew over a debt row.

Two years later, she was towed to the Dominican Republic to be scrapped.

Cannibal carnage: Searchers say there are likely to be hundreds, if not thousands, of disease-ridden rats on board with no source of food except each other (file picture)

Lost at sea: Coastguards fear the 40-year-old liner was driven across the North Atlantic by high winds and is now lurking worryingly close to the UK shoreline

But when she came loose, the Canadian government decided to drag her far out to sea and leave her there.

Adventurers - who want to cash in on the ship's £600,000 value as scrap - do not believe she has sunk because the life-raft transmitters would have gone off.

The sign of her since has been two distress beacons picked up mid-Atlantic in March last year which are thought to have gone off when life-rafts fell into the water.



A few weeks later, a satellite spotted a blip off the coast of Scotland big enough to be the ship, but no vessel was found. After that, nothing has been seen of the 300ft liner.

Irish coastguard Chris Reynolds said: 'We must stay vigilant.

'We don’t want rats from foreign ships coming onto Irish soil. If it came and broke up on shore, I’m sure local people wouldn’t be very happy about it.’

