A 9,000 tonne container ship ran aground off the West Cornwall coast last night - despite repeated warning calls from the Falmouth Coastguard.

The ship was spotted by the coastguard at 4.30am, when they realised it was not using the traffic separation scheme correctly.

Attempts were made to call the vessel by all means but the vessel went aground in the area of Cape Cornwall near the Pendeen Lighthouse at Cape Cornwall.

The St Ives Coastguard rescue team were called to attend the scene alongside the police.

The Coastguard tug Anglian Princess was repositioned in case it was required and the St Ives and Sennen Cove lifeboats were requested to launch.

A rescue helicopter R193 from RNAS Culdrose was also scrambled.

The coastguard received a call two hours later from the master of the vessel reporting that he had managed to refloat the vessel after moving ballast water and using his engines to get the vessel off where she had beached.

The vessel was carrying a cargo of containers and had 13 crew onboard.

The vessel is now continuing on passage to Rotterdam under its own power and all units have now been stood down.

There has been no damage to the vessel, no pollution and no injuries to any of the crew.

Steve Huxley, Duty Area officer, Falmouth Coastguard said: "This has been a very fast moving scenario where this container vessel run aground on beach and with the rising tide, the master managed to refloat the ship."